Explain and assess the way in which local and/or national government has reacted to a campaign that you know.

Written by Fleur Robilliard (Jan 2008)

In this essay, I will demonstrate the different ways in which the local and national government has responded to the expansion of Heathrow airport with a third runway which will result in the destruction of thousands of homes. I will initially give and outline of local government and a national government. After giving a brief outline of the proposals, I will then give an examples of how the local government – in this case London Borough of Hounslow and then the national governments reaction to the proposed plans that are proposed to be implemented by the year 2020.

Local Government:

There are several different parts of local government all of which influence their local area. Local government can consist of single tier authorities which have responsibilities for all local services in the area. These are broken down into sub categories related to area, for example Metropolitan areas such as Manchester and Stockport, London Boroughs such as Southwark and Hounslow. There are also unitary authorities which includes Peterborough and Milton Keynes. These forms of local governments are elected once every four years and councillors get paid approximately £11,000 per year as a part time salary.

Two – tier authorities are another form of local government, these can be found in more rural areas and work alongside district and local councils. The county council takes responsibilities for the major services with some of them going to the district council as they are seen to have the advantage due to the greater knowledge of the locality especially where there is a large physical distance that the authority covers.

National Government:

In contrast, National Government has influence on a national scale. Government comprises of the House of Commons and the House of Lords and the Monarch which are the law making body of the United Kingdom. The House of Commons is elected once every five years is made up of 659 members of parliament and unlike local governors are paid a full time salary of £56,358 per year. The majority of votes follow party lines with the “Whip system” where MP’s have to vote along in the direction that their party requires them to in the event of a three line whip being present.

The House of Lords also play a legislative role in national government and are made up the 93 unelected hereditary peers and 400 appointed life peers. The House of Lords also deliberate on laws and have the power to delay bills for up to one year.

Local and National government have had two very different reactions to the proposal to build a third runway approximately 2,200 metre runway by the year 2020 at Heathrow Airport and potentially a Sixth Terminal. These proposals that were set out in the governments white paper lead to the destruction of The village of Sipson on the outskirts of Heathrow leading to approximately 700 homes and 1,200 people being evicted and renders neighbouring villages such as Harmondsworth and Harlington uninhabitable as a result of this increased noise pollution that comes as a result. The deadline for the government consultation deadline ends on the 27^th February 2008 leaving less than a month until the decision has been made.

National Government reactions:

In general, the local and national government are strongly opposing each other’s views. The national government has reacted to the plans by taking part in interviews, particularly with government ministers such as the Transport Secretary Ruth Kelly. In the case of National Government, the general opinion is that the Third runway is a good thing for the country’s economy which is aided by their fear of Heathrow loosing its status of being a “world class airport.” The national government is looking to the economic befits that come with these expansion plans. Kelly went on to suggest that the 170,000 jobs that come as a result of Heathrow airport at present and British exports is the “gateway to the Global economy, “and suggests that without change, it could have a detrimental effect to the country’s economy.

However, national government is keen to press upon the importance of the expansion plans meeting the environmental requirements that are outlined with by the EU air quality standards and will allegedly only go ahead with these plans if these are met.

National government has, in addition reacted by delivering a survey to residents of the surrounding about their views of the expansion plans after having launched a 14 week consultation period with residents in an attempt to look at the government’s proposals for amongst other things, the Third Runway and the Sixth Terminal. During this time, the department for transport has not held any public consultations, though they have held a series of one-day expeditions to certain areas. This demonstrates another way in which the National government has reacted to the Heathrow airport expansion campaign

National government has also published their consultation document entitled Adding Capacity to Heathrow Airport. This document has been published and is made available on the Department for Transports website and contains the government’s reason for the expansion the benefits to the community.

Local Government Reactions:

Local government however, has taken a very different approach to the plans to expand the airport. The main talking points on both the London Borough of Hounslow and the London Borough of Hillingdon websites are based around the expansion plans, encouraging citizens to register their views against these proposals particularly during the final weeks of the consultation period and also encourages its citizens to register their views by completing the government survey which had been sent out to residents of the surrounding areas.

The London borough of Hounslow have also published numerous articles on their websites and essential making as much information available to them as possible encouraging citizens to make their views heard and have published reasons as to why the expansion should not be allowed to go ahead in their “10 reasons not to expand Heathrow” article. They point out that with the expansion will come more planes, more noise and more pollution. It also states that children’s education will suffer due to the increase in noise and the World Health Organisation also suggests that the national government is refusing to look into despite it being a very important factor. The Council also suggest that Heathrow and its surrounding areas simply do not have the infrastructure to support the additional traffic not only in the air space but on the roads and rail services that serve the area. Naturally, it also has concerns relating to the possible safety issues that come from expanding the airport into having an additional 320,00 planes per year fly into this already crowded airspace. These arguments have been put forward by the local council as reasons to stop the expansion has been greatly supported with the emergency landing that occurred on Thursday 17^th January 2008, with a Boeing 777 from Beijing landed a few hundred meters short of the runway narrowly clearing the perimeter road. It has been therefore been pointed out by pressure groups such as NOTRAG (The No Third Runway Action Group) that this could have been a catastrophic event if the airport had been expanded.

This suggests yet another way in which the local government has reacted to these plans; in this case, it is by publishing documents on their website relating to the expansion - in short, by making information easily accessible to its citizens.

On driving through the areas, it is also not difficult to miss the fact that virtually every house has a “say no to the third runway” signs in windows, as yet another initiative to demonstrate how many people this will effect. As the final weeks of the governments 14 week consultation period ends.

In the case of The London Borough Of Hounslow, a group against the proposals have been set up on the social networking site Facebook by the council itself, demonstrating routes that they are willing to take to prevent the expansion from happening and how they are attempting to make their views on the subject as accessible to as many people as possible through as many mediums as the deadline looms nearer.

2M is another group that is greatly supported by the local governments and also suggests another way in which the government has reacted to the government campaigns. The 2M group or 2 Million Voices against Heathrow Expansion is an alliance of twelve local councils in alliance all concerned with each other regarding how the government’s proposals will affect their communities. These 2Million voices against Heathrow expansion group comprises of councils that include Spelthorne, The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, London Borough of Hounslow, Kensington and Chelsea; and Richmond and Wandsworth amongst others. This group of allied public authorities have claimed that the 14 month consultation period was too short and criticised the fact that BAA has had too much influence over the Department For Transport which has caused the local authorities to have very little access to information that they so desperately need. The group stresses the fact that they are not against the national governments proposals only the fact that they are consistently “failing to see the implication that the airport has on the environment.” Authorities have also been holding their public meetings for residents.

This demonstrates another way in which the local government has reacted to this campaign.

Conclusion:

From these arguments, it is possible to conclude that the Local and National Governments have reacted very differently to each side of the campaign to expand Heathrow Airport with a Third Runway and a Sixth Terminal by the year 2020 and are now further outraged by BAA refusing to rule out a Terminal Seven and Fourth Runway by 2030. National government has responded with the use of surveys to act as a sounding board of public opinion, publishing documents relating to the expansion and providing interviews with government officials. However, Local Government has reacted differently with them putting their weight behind public meetings, encouraging citizens to register their views and opinions and joining together with other local authorities in an attempt to make themselves and their residents heard.