Third runway 'a white elephant' says scientist

The third runway: the battle lines have been drawn

The Government's former chief scientific adviser has poured scorn on its plans for a third runway at Heathrow airport.

Professor Sir David King branded the scheme "a white elephant" claiming the plans were both short-sighted and economically unsound.

"I'm looking at this from a marketing point of view - if we're moving towards decarbonising our economy this must mean that alternative means of transport - land transport - will be favoured over air transport," he said.

"This must mean that by pricing carbon dioxide, by putting fuel tax on aviation fuel as well, that we will drive people toward land-based travel rather than air, and investments in new runways will turn out to be white elephants."

Sir David, who made his comments in an interview for the Ecologist Film Unit, has previously described climate change as "a far greater threat even than global terrorism".

But Business Secretary John Hutton today insisted the Government could support an expansion of aviation with climate change in mind.

"We will help make flying greener rather than restricting people's opportunities to fly altogether," he added.

"So we will take the necessary decisions on airport expansion to ensure the UK has the transport infrastructure it needs to continue to attract business from across the globe."

His comments follow the release of a report commissioned by the City of London Authority which claims that building a third runway at Heathrow Airport is the "obvious" solution to
airport congestion.

The study rejected alternatives, such as building a new airport in the Thames Gateway. The authors said Heathrow was currently "deeply unpopular" with business leaders because of delays, traffic and security issues.

But critics of the third runway scheme said this was even more reason why BAA and the Government should invest more time and money into improving the services they already have - rather than adding to them.

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