Luton Rising, the owner of Luton Airport, has begun a new round of consultation on airport expansion plans. The latest round incorporates changes and suggestions drawn from the last set of consultation events held in 2019.
As before, the consultations will be seeking the views of local people around the area as the airport seeks to expand from 18 to 32 million passengers per year. This will not require a second runway, but it will include a new terminal, and building across much of Wigmore Park.
Previous consultations raised objections around the environment, and Luton Rising insist their plans have taken this into consideration. “We firmly believe there is a way to grow an airport in a sustainably responsible way” says Councillor Javeria Hussein, chair of Luton Rising.
Chief Executive Graham Olver highlights a new “Green Controlled Growth framework” for the airport expansion, described as “at the heart of our sustainability measures, which we believe are some of the most far-reaching ever put forward by a UK airport.” The plan is to put robust limits on key environmental impacts, and make them legally binding.
Critics remain sceptical, pointing out that previous limits such as noise restrictions have been repeatedly breached. Anti-expansion group LADACAN say the plans will lead to 40,000 extra passenger journeys on the roads every day, and impose day and night-time noise increases across the region.
Most importantly, the expansion of Luton Airport would lead to a 60% rise in greenhouse gas emissions from the flights. Even if the airport itself were to operate entirely on renewable energy, Luton Airport would be directly responsible for over two million tonnes of CO2 a year from the planes – a vast contribution to global climate change.
We will be covering Luton Airport and its plans in more detail in future articles.
To find out more about the expansion plans, drop in on one of the public consultation exhibitions, or visit the online exhibition space on Luton Rising’s website.
Zero Carbon Luton 