Luton Airport: Expansion plans reckless and unsustainable says campaigners

Community representatives have condemned as "reckless, irresponsible and unsustainable" an application submitted today by Luton Airport's owners Luton Rising for further major development at the busy airport situated a few miles from Hitchin.

The plan is to build a second terminal and new car parks on Wigmore Park, as well as more aircraft stands. This comes just days after public controversy over the £300m spent by Luton Rising on a DART rail link to the airport, which its auditors PricewaterhouseCoopers had valued at only £180m before resigning. 

 Andrew Lambourne, speaking for anti-noise campaign group LADACAN, said "It's tragic that the Councillors who run Luton Rising have been so obsessed with growing the airport they appear to have lost sight of the need for prudence.

"Having run up half a billion pounds of debt on vanity projects such as the DART, the interest payments alone will soak up much of the future revenue from the Airport.

"We can't see how that benefits people, at a time when government is demanding much more focus on risk in huge capital projects." 

The proposed expansion is on such a scale that it requires a Development Consent Order from the National Planning Inspectorate, and needs a developer prepared to invest more than £1bn in the new facilities.

Passenger capacity would increase from 18 to 32 million per annum, resulting in 40,000 more passenger journeys per day on local roads and rail services.  

"As for the wider area," Mr Lambourne added: "This proposal would create noise blight across North Hertfordshire, with flights increasingly starting at 5am and running on into the early hours, keeping thousands more people awake at night.

"The harms outweigh any possible benefits." 

The submission of a Development Consent Order which aims to nearly double the airport's capacity to 32 million passengers per annum is currently being considered by the independent Planning Inspectorate. 

Hertfordshire County Councillor John Hale added: "The climate crisis is obviously worsening and people are really thinking twice before flying. It's short-sighted to try to sustain the sub-regional economy on revenue from a fossil-fuelled industry which is among the hardest to decarbonise.

"Claims by Luton Rising about 'Green Control Growth' are greenwash which fools nobody.

"There's nothing green about plans which will choke the already crowded local roads and rail services and add to the ever-growing carbon emissions from Luton Airport."