'Dangerous and irresponsible' - Jonathan Essex, vice-chair of GACC, on London Gatwick's proposed Northern Runway plans - video Dailymotion

Jonathan Essex, vice-chair of GACC, speaks to Mark Dunford about London Gatwick's proposed Northern Runway plans

Transcript

00:00First of all, could you introduce yourself, please?

00:03Hi, my name's Jonathan Essex and I'm Vice-Chair of the Gatwick Area Conservation Campaign.

00:07And can you explain what we're doing here today, considering the report that came out today?

00:11So today, which is the day before the decision on whether Gatwick expansion takes place,

00:17today the UK's independent Climate Change Committee, an independent body connected to the government,

00:23produced its study to say what the government should do to reduce emissions down for the period from 2038 to 2042,

00:33which is exactly the time when this new runway is being developed for, if you like.

00:39And what they said is that we should really push back aviation expansion

00:44and there's really no need for any new aviation capacity in the next decade.

00:49We should instead wait for these so-called sustainable aviation fuels to prove their worth.

00:55And then if they do come forward, if they are successful, then that will be the time to grow aviation later.

01:02And given Heidi Alexander's comments we heard last night, it looks like that the plans will be given the go-ahead.

01:10What's the next steps for your campaign if it is given the green light tomorrow?

01:16Well, if that political decision is dangerous and irresponsible in the way that Heidi Alexander was suggesting it might be yesterday,

01:26then I really think we should take a hard look at the decision

01:30and Heidi Alexander should expect a legal challenge or two coming her way.

01:36And how can people get involved with your campaign if they feel so strongly about the decision tomorrow?

01:42So we will be launching a crowdfunding campaign on the Crowd Justice website.

01:49Actually it's being launched today so it's now going live.

01:53People would like to donate and we're asking people to support us to take this to the first step

01:58to see if it can be heard at the courts.

02:01We want to raise the amount of money for each step of the campaign as we go forward.

02:05Brilliant, thank you very much.