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Airports & Aviation
In February 2003, the Department for Transport (DfT) published a consultation document entitled The Future Development of Air Transport in the UK: South East - Second Edition. The purpose of the document was to set out the Government's appraisal of benefits and disbenefits of options for additional airport capacity, and to seek views on those options.
A Second Edition was required due to a successful legal challenge to the first consultation document, which had been published in July 2002. The first document had not included Gatwick airport in considerations for additional airport capacity.
The consultation document was based on the Government's forecast that unconstrained demand for air travel in the South East would increase from 117 million passengers per annum (mppa) in 2000 to 301 mppa in 2030.
This document put forward a number of 'possible combinations of airport options', including one or more extra runways at Heathrow, Stansted and a new airport at Cliffe in Kent.
With regard to Luton airport, the first option was for a new 3000m runway some 200m to the south of, and parallel to, the existing runway. The existing runway would be retained as a taxiway. The second option was for a new realigned runway, NNE-SSW, and the provision of a parallel taxiway. The possibilities for Stansted was an extra one, two or three runways.
The consultation process resulted in approximately 500,000 representations. Further to this consultation process, the Air Transport White Paper (ATWP) was published on the 16th December 2003.
The main outcome of the ATWP with regard to London Luton Airport (LLA) was that maximum use should be made of a full length runway based broadly on the current alignment. What this meant in practice was that the Government considered it appropriate for the existing runway to be extended up to approximately 3000m. For Stansted, the White Paper proposed one extra runway.
North Hertfordshire District Council took legal advice with regard to the White Paper and decided to be part of a Legal Challenge to the White Paper, with other local authorities in Hertfordshire and Essex. The hearing took place in December 2004, with the judgement being handed down in February 2005. Justice Sullivan accepted the challenges regarding the runway options at Stansted and Luton, finding that the wording regarding the proposed wide-spaces runway at Stansted was unlawful and the extended runway option at Luton had no special policy status. The coalition of local authorities were awarded 80% of their costs.
One of the requirements of the ATWP was that airport operators produce Master Plans, to set out their development proposals for the future. Luton Airport has spent the last few months carrying out background work for their Master Plan. The process has been overseen by a Steering Group involving a number of interested parties. North Hertfordshire District Council is on the Steering Group.
Luton Airport published their Project 2030 Master Plan Core Strategy in October 2005. The document sets out the airport’s plans to develop the airport up to 2030. The main proposal is to build a 3,000m replacement runway 900m to the south of the existing runway. The existing 2,160m runway would remain for emergency purposes. The replacement runway would allow passenger numbers to increase from approximately 7.5 million per annum in 2004, up to potentially 31 million by 2030.
The document was out for public consultation until 27th January 2006. North Hertfordshire District Council's comments are below.
Luton Airport Masterplan comments (45.3KB) 
The Master Plan can be found on the London Luton Airport website. This also contains the associated documents: Airport Surface Access Strategy, Community Consultation Strategy, Proposed Sound Insulation Scheme, and Sustainability Appraisal.
The operator of the airport (LLAOL) is currently in negotiations with the owner of the airport (LLAL). At the recent London Luton Airport Consultative Committee (LLACC), the airport operator produced the following statement regarding Master Plan progress:
"As reported at the last LLACC, LLAOL and LLAL are engaged in commercial and technical dialogue with respect to the long term development plans of the airport, which may take some time to conclude. These discussions are ongoing. LLAOL does not intend to publish the final London Luton Airport Master Plan until these discussions are sufficiently progressed. This process could in theory result in any of the following outcomes:
- Publication of the final Master Plan published with suitable amendments to reflect the comments received during the public consultation exercise;
- Publication of an Interim Master Plan, which could focus on the existing site only, with final Master Plan to follow in due course, potentially involving re-consulting on the latter part of the strategy;
- Publication of a new Master Plan with an alternative development strategy requiring a new consultation.
- LLAOL remains committed to publishing a Master Plan which will positively inform the process set out by the Government White Paper and will keep LLACC informed of any decisions made with respect to the Master Plan publication."
For further information, please contact (01462) 474000 or service@north-herts.gov.uk
