Good news! Judicial Review into Luton airport expansion will go ahead

The legal challenge of the Secretary of State’s permission for Luton airport to nearly double its capacity is now headed to the High Court.

LADACAN (Luton and District Association for the Control of Airport Noise) – with support from CPRE Hertfordshire and other local groups and individuals – has been granted permission for the legal challenge to proceed and to be heard in the High Court.

Earlier this year the Government’s Planning Inspectorate recommended that Luton airport’s application for expansion be refused on environmental grounds. But the Secretary of State for Transport rejected that recommendation and granted consent regardless, prompting this legal challenge. And now the High Court has agreed to hear the challenge.

This requires specialist legal representation, which is costly. Every donation no matter how large or small will help with this and is greatly appreciated.

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Why this legal challenge is so important

Luton airport’s expansion will have a devastating impact on the environment and cause irreversible damage to the countryside including the nearby Chilterns National Landscape. This also includes the destruction of Wigmore Park, a local wildlife site and public green space, in order to build a new terminal and related facilities and add 77,000 more flights per year (including increasing night flights by 70%). Existing road and rail traffic congestion would increase by 15 million more passengers per year than in 2024, and overall capacity at Luton airport would nearby double to 32 million passengers per annum.

There will be massively increased noise and air pollution not just from the increase in flights but also from the increase in people travelling to and from the airport. Increased greenhouse gas emissions will worsen rather than mitigate the impacts of climate change.

Impact on Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire

The impact of Luton airport expansion will be felt over a wide swathe of Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire, affecting hundreds of thousands of local residents. The damage and harm caused by this expansion will be terrible for local people and communities and terrible for the planet.

Please help fund the legal challenge and help fight Luton airport expansion. The expansion is not inevitable and it’s not a done deal.

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Find out more about the background to the legal challenge and CPRE Hertfordshire’s long-running campaign against Luton airport expansion and its hugely damaging impact on the Hertfordshire countryside.