Orders of the Day — National Airport Policy

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 29 June 1967.

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Photo of Mr Douglas Jay Mr Douglas Jay , Battersea North 12:00, 29 June 1967

The White Paper mentions the second runway at Gatwick. I am saying categorically that we mean to proceed with it. I have said that that extension should be completed by 1971 or 1972.

If we allow for that additional capacity for peak spreading in the use of airports and for the fact that aircraft in the interval will increase in size, the two airports, Heathrow and Gatwick, are likely to become saturated by about 1974, though, clearly, we cannot be absolutely exact in these forecasts.

If an adequate modern airport equal to the standards of that period is to be ready by 1974, we must start, first, to plan it and, second, to build it many years earlier. The construction of a full two-runway airport with all the necessary terminal buildings—I am sorry that this is so, but it is so—will take about four years. Before that, the necessary planning and some initial building, which must follow the selection of the site, will take two to three years. A start on the terminal complex, therefore, must be made now, and, this, unfortunately, cannot be done unless the proposed pattern of the airport and the number of runways, and so on, is known. That is why a decision has become urgent if planning by all the many authorities concerned is to go forward.

Those who argue that there is no need for an airport at Stansted must, therefore, argue either that there is no need for a third international airport at all or that there is some other site in the South-East which is preferable to Stansted. In making a choice between the alternatives, as it is clear we must, the following salient facts must be recognised at the start. First, we must either choose a site close to a large built-up area, in which case the noise nuisance will be maximised, or we must go to open country, in which case some farm land will be lost and some countryside, unhappily, sacrificed. There is no escape from that dilemma, whatever we do. Secondly, whatever site we select, there is again—much and deeply as we regret it—bound to be local disturbance and very natural resistance from those in the area who do not have to find or name the alternatives.

Thirdly, there already exists over this small island an extemely complex pattern of air traffic every day and every night—in all weathers—with twice as many military movements daily as civil, even at the present time. One aircraft is landing at Heathrow every minute, and collisions must be avoided. Safety must be regarded as absolutely paramount and I am not prepared to take any risks with it.