Mayor Rivals Unite Over Heathrow

By JASON BEATTIE

ALL the frontrunners in the race for the London Mayor joined forces today to oppose Heathrow expansion.

Mayor Ken Livingstone, Conservative Boris Johnson, Liberal Democrat Brian Paddick and Green Sian Berry appear in an advert criticising the plans.

Ministers want to build a third runway, and almost double the number of flights at the airport to more than 700,000 a year.

The advert, paid for by Greenpeace, AirportWatch and enoughsenough.org, shows the four politicians under the headline “London United”. It states: “All four candidates for London Mayor oppose the third runway at Heathrow. They don’t agree on much, but they agree on this.” It will appear on Friday in the Evening Standard, The Times, the Guardian and The Independent.

Greenpeace executive director John Sauven said: “When these four agree you know something’s going on. The candidates fighting it out for the support of Londoners are all telling Gordon Brown he’s got it wrong on Heathrow.

A third runway would be bad news for the climate and deeply disturbing for people living under the flightpath.” The campaign comes amid criticism of the government consultation on expansion. The Plain English Campaign branded the wording of the document “atrocious”.

Ministers are under pressure to extend the consultation beyond its 27 February deadline, amid claims that residents in Hounslow, Wandsworth, and Hammersmith and Fulham have not received the consultation details..

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