Planning Bill

Of course, Sir Rod Eddington came to it with a balanced view gained from his aviation background, and ignored all other representations made by any other sector of industry in this country. I have experience, too. I was at the terminal 4 inquiry. I gave evidence to the terminal 5 inquiry. I have been involved in every major planning issue to do with Heathrow for more than 30 years. There is a sense of irony that BAA and even the Government are arguing that delays in the terminal 5 process have contributed to the introduction of the Bill. I was at the terminal 5 inquiry and the delays that I witnessed were caused by BAA—the developers. It continuously changed the proposals it was advocating, it changed its position almost weekly and it used banks of lawyers and experts who swamped the timetable of considerations at the inquiry. That is understandable—it was difficult for BAA. It was trying to prove an unsustainable argument: that the airport could be virtually doubled at terminal 5 without any impact on noise, air pollution or local communities. It used expert after expert, year after year, to try to press that argument. Others, including the London borough of Hillingdon, the anti-noise group HACAN ClearSkies, the residents associations and Friends of the Earth were more limited. I congratulate them on the expeditious presentation of their arguments. They wanted to arrive at a decision. They were poorly resourced, but they intervened well at the inquiry.