Birmingham Airport campaign backed by MPs
THE campaign to get the Government to build Birmingham Airport into future aviation policy thinking has stepped up a gear with the publication of a letter in a national newspaper today signed by politicians from both main parties.
Conservative and Labour MPs plus businesses and councillors from the West Midlands are calling for spare capacity at Birmingham Airport to be used to ease congestion in the South East.
The move follows calls earlier in the week from backbench Conservative MPs for David Cameron to re-think his decision to block plans for a third runway at Heathrow.
Some 20 Conservative and ten Labour MPs and MEPs, in addition to council leaders, chambers of commerce and many business leaders argue that in the long-term the development of Birmingham Airport as a major gateway at the centre of the UK would reduce unproductive surface travel time and leave Heathrow as a gateway for London and the South-East.
The letter published in today’s Daily Telegraph says: “A ‘hub airport’ in the South East favours a small, congested, and already economically strong part of the country. We need gateways close to the manufacturing, research and development of the Midlands and the North, linking these regions directly to emerging markets.
“Overseas investors are discouraged from investing where there are no global links. For Britain, over-reliance on one large, full airport, risks national resilience and leads the rest of the world to believe there is just one gateway to this country.
“Airports in our great industrial cities have huge spare capacity. Birmingham Airport’s current spare runway capacity is 27 million passengers per annum. Birmingham is at the heart of the rail and motorway networks, and its airport is the most accessible in Britain.
“The Airport and NEC station will be the hub of the proposed HS2 network. With its proposed second runway, Birmingham’s spare capacity could rise to over 50 million and create 50,000 jobs.
“As local politicians and business leaders, we call on Government to encourage and assist airports to work with local enterprise partnerships and stakeholders. Infrastructure planning needs to provide confidence for airports to be able to plan well into the future. The Government must support expansion of Birmingham’s airport to maximise the regional growth.”
The letter is signed by Mark Garnier MP (Con) and Ian Austin MP (Lab) plus Jerry Blackett, chief executive of Birmingham Chamber of Commerce Group and 72 other MPs, MEPs, councillors and businesses.
Mark Garnier, the MP for Wyre Forest who is leading this initiative for the Conservatives, said: “To concentrate the expansion debate in the South East would be to miss an opportunity for regional economic growth.
“Birmingham expansion would not only ease aviation congestion in the South-East, it would also send a clear message that the Midlands is open for international business. The economic growth debate must include airport expansion in regions such as the West Midlands. That is why we are pushing hard the case for Birmingham.”
Jerry Blackett said: “Clearly, Birmingham Airport has the capacity to reduce the over-heating South East immediately.
“For businesses in the West Midlands the development of Birmingham Airport as a major gateway is essential so that we can develop direct air links with places like the west coast of America and the Far East, particularly China, for the movement of people and goods.”
