BAA

Boy are BAA keen on a third runway for Heathrow. Their enthusiasm knows no bounds, and there appear to be no lengths they won't go to to get their own way - purely for the good of the country, of course (even though they are Spanish owned) - no shabby profit motives involved.

So far in order to see their dream come true they have:

• colluded with the government (through a joint body - the Heathrow Delivery Group) to steer their plans through the consultation process
• supplied their own data for calculations of noise and pollution that inform the proposal, and prevented opposition groups gaining access it it to carry out their own analyses
• written parts of the consultation themselves
• drawn up a 'risk' list with the Department of Transport to counter opponents of the proposal (including the 2M campaign, the group comprising local councils representing 2 million people who'll be affected by the new runway)
• taken out an injunction against Airportwatch, the umbrella organisation who's members include such radical groups as the National Trust, the RSPB, the Woodland Trust and the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England, as well as ourselves.

News just in from Carol of the Airportwatch/Stop Stansted Expansion group of skullduggery afoot by airport owners BAA to influence their application to build a second runway there. Apparently BAA has recently resorted to 'encouraging' not only its own staff members, but also those of its many suppliers, to write in to the local Uttlesford District Council in support of its new runway proposal.