Lib Dems say Heathrow expansion will lose UK billions

12.10.00pm GMT Mon 7th Dec 2009

Liberal Democrats protest at the prospect of a third runway at Heathrow

"We don't need a bigger Heathrow to keep London competitive," said the Liberal Democrat Heathrow Spokesperson Susan Kramer MP. Commenting on the Transport Select Committee endorsement of the economic case for a third runway at Heathrow, she said: "In light of the new Government guidance on the cost of CO2 emissions, Heathrow expansion will actually cost us billions. Only this Government could dress up a loss of billions of pounds as a reason to have a third runway."

Susan Kramer added: "Ministers know the case for Heathrow expansion has been comprehensively discredited and are now trying to smother dissent. They will do anything to force Heathrow expansion through, have ignored public opinion, scientific evidence and the environmental costs of expansion, and are now determined to ride roughshod over our democracy."

Lib Dem questions in parliament have also revealed that at least half of the 38 Ministers and officials that the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) are taking to the Copenhagen Conference will be travelling by plane. Liberal Democrat Shadow Energy and Climate Change Secretary, Simon Hughes MP, will be travelling to the Copenhagen conference by train. The cost of his travel will be cheaper than the average £460 that DECC is paying to send each of its ministers and civil servants to the Conference.

Commenting, Simon Hughes said: "It's a disgrace that ministers and officials are flying today to attend the Copenhagen Conference. They are supposed to be discussing how to save the world from a climate crisis and yet many of them are using the most polluting form of transport available - and at a very high cost to the public. I will be travelling to the conference by train, a method of transport far less damaging to the environment. It may take a little longer to get there, but it certainly will cost less than the people at the Department of Climate Change are spending on their travel. Labour has to wake up and realise that words are not what is needed to avert a climate crisis, it is real action that counts."