Controversy

THE COMMITTEE report from the council's officers for the November 29 meeting was published on Tuesday, November 21.

It contains a recommendation to committee members. It will be down to councillors to decide at the meeting whether to accept the recommendation.

I have heard rumours about how this might play out, the council caving in and agreeing to the application or refusing it and sparking a major national debate on issues such as climate change.' We will all know a bit more in a couple of days' time. What is guaranteed is controversy.

There was an interview with Prime Minister Tony Blair in the Independent newspaper. 'Put it (aviation) in the European Emissions Trading System, that's the single most important thing you could do. But the danger is that if we prevent people in Britain taking cheap flights, and people in Europe were still able to, you wouldn't make a great deal of difference except making travel a lot harder for low income families'.

So the Prime Minister doesn't want to limit poorer families from flying. But they don't fly much anyway, according to last week's report from the CAA.

He clearly won't be able to restrict better off families from flying. So what's the point of Emissions Trading if it has no effect on the escalation of greenhouse gas emissions from more and more aeroplane journeys? Smoke, carbon and mirrors, I suggest!

Cllr Alan Dean, Airport Advisory Panel chairman, Uttlesford District Council