The environmental answer

Extract

Normally when I am speaking I have to balance both sides of the argument to make sure that everybody has a fair crack at the whip, and make sure that both points of view are put. Today I do not. It has been made abundantly clear to me they wish me to speak straight on an environmental point of view with particular reference to the noise problems. I will do so with the greatest of pleasure. We have a document here which has good and bad points, from the environmental point of view I would like to state the good, because there are some in this document. Firstly, we know where we are going and we know what we have got to argue about. We know where the Government wants to go in the size and use of our airports and from the Gatwick point of view this is something we have wanted for a long time. Secondly, major developments at the airports in future may be subjected to some form of local authority control, an argument the local authority has been making for a long time.