Trust says no to second runway at Stansted

Plans submitted today by BAA to build a second runway at Stansted Airport could have major consequences for the internationally important and 1,000 year old Hatfield Forest, managed by the National Trust.

BAA has submitted a detailed planning application to Uttlesford District Council to build another runway at Stansted Airport.

Keith Turner, National Trust Area Manager for Essex, Suffolk and Hertfordshire, said:

'BAA’s plans to expand Stansted will jeopardise the future of Hatfield Forest as a vital green space for local people and haven for wildlife. The potential increase in noise pollution alone would have a major detrimental impact on the tranquillity experienced by the quarter of a million visitors annually and the wildlife inhabiting this ancient woodland.'

Protesters at Hatfield Forest, under threat from the expansion of Stansted Airport.
© National Trust

The inevitable increase in air pollution would also put at risk the Forest’s species and long-term stability. BAA only recently had to upgrade their predictions on how much air pollution would affect Hatfield Forest after they admitted using incorrect data. This demonstrates that potentially damaging air quality thresholds could be exceeded over more parts of the Forest than are already affected.

The second runway would potentially more than double the number of passengers using the airport, and continue to dramatically increase the number of planes flying close to the medieval hunting forest which is home to hundreds of ancient trees, several hundred species of rare moths, flies, plants, fungi and lichen and 65 species of breeding birds.

Hatfield Forest
© NTPL / Paul Wakefield

Keith Turner continues:

'The National Trust has opposed the expansion of Stansted Airport for over 25 years, with the active support of our members and the general public, in order to try and safeguard the long-term future of Hatfield Forest.'

The outcome of the Government’s Public Inquiry into BAA’s application to maximise usage of the existing runway at Stansted (which could see passenger numbers increase from 25 million to 35 million each year) is still outstanding and expected imminently.

Cattle grazing wood pasture at Hatfield Forest.