Court nod likely for airport plans

BRITAIN’S Supreme Court will give Heathrow Airport the goahead to expand on Wednesday (16), a lawyer in the case said, a decision that would put the £14 billion plan back on track after years of legal battles and political wrangling.

The plan to build a new runway was declared unlawful on environmental grounds by the Court of Appeal in February, but the country’s top court is set to overturn that earlier decision, said a lawyer involved in the campaign against the airport’s plans.

The lawyer, Tim Crosland, said on Tuesday (15) the top court was due to rule in Heathrow’s favour and he was acting in “contempt of court” by announcing the verdict before the court had officially handed it down.

“I am breaking the court embargo on Heathrow to protest against the injustice of the verdict, which is a betrayal of the younger generation and those on the frontline of the crisis” Crosland told Reuters.

The judge in the ruling in February had said a failure to take into account the government’s commitments on climate change was “legally fatal” to the plans.