Company appeals ruling on airport’s runway

A FIRM developing a rival bid to expand Heathrow has launched an appeal against a ruling by leading judges that the Government must reconsider its support for a third runway.

The Arora Group said it lodged appeal papers in the Supreme Court yesterday in a bid to “put Heathrow expansion back on track”.

The west London airport’s owner, Heathrow Airport Ltd (HAL), has also stated it will appeal to the Supreme Court.

On Thursday, the Court of Appeal ruled that the Government failed to take account of its commitment to the Paris Agreement on climate change when setting out its support for airport expansion in its National Policy Statement (NPS).

Pending an appeal, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps must review the NPS if the Government wants the project to go ahead.

The Arora Group was an interested party in the Court of Appeal case.

It wants to build and operate a new terminal serving a third runway at Heathrow.

The firm claims it can do this quicker and at a lower cost than HAL.

Friends of the Earth, one of the environmental groups that brought the case, said the ruling was “an absolutely groundbreaking result for climate justice”. Greenpeace said the government needed to “permanently ground Heathrow’s expansion plans”.

The appeal was brought by a group of councils in London affected by the expansion, environmental charities including Greenpeace, Friends Of The Earth and Plan B, and London Mayor Sadiq Khan.

Before he became prime minister, Boris Johnson pledged in 2015 to lie down “in front of those bulldozers” and stop the third runway at Heathrow.