Date published: 2007/05/24
The BBC says:
One of the last remaining ancient forests in Europe will be put at risk if the Stansted Airport expansion goes ahead, the National Trust has warned.
A public inquiry into British Airport Authority (BAA) plans for a second runway at the airport starts on 30 May.
The National Trust said the expansion will increase pollution and threaten the future of nearby Hatfield Forest.
But BAA said major roads such as the M11 near the forest produce a greater environmental impact on the woods.
The National Trust on Thursday told BBC News of its concerns about plans to increase the passenger numbers at Stansted from 25 to 35 million each year.
The trust said the Essex forest is home to nearly 1,000 ancient trees, several hundred species of rare moth, flies, plant, fungi and lichen and 65 species of breeding birds.
Some of the trees have been in the forest for 600 years.
The trust said it believes air pollution threatens the forest's species and long-term stability, while noise from aircraft could destroy its tranquillity.
Keith Turner, National Trust area manager for Essex, Suffolk and Hertfordshire, said: "We have opposed the incremental expansion of Stansted Airport for over 25 years, due to its unknown impact on the Forest.
Most of the nearby pollution is caused by cars on the M11 and A120. Most of the cars on those roads have nothing to do with the airport. This is just typical academic middle class scare mongering. And as Turner says, the Trust has opposed Stansted Airport forever, and yet the forest is still there, so the world has not ended. And how do the National Trust moaners get to Hatfield Forest themselves? No doubt by car. The same academic middle class people will eventually manage to abolish cars with hydrocarbon-based engines, so the special pleading will be even less relevant then.
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