Government slammed for denying Heathrow slots

Oct 23 2009 By Evening Gazette

AVIATION chiefs have called on the Government to stop the industry from pricing regional airlines out of Heathrow.

The call comes as a new report claims ministers are unlikely to guarantee landing slots at Heathrow for flights from Durham Tees Valley Airport (DTVA).

In the summer, airport chiefs were lobbying senior politicians with a view to hammering out an agreement - a public service obligation (PSO) - that would effectively ring-fence landing slots for its flights to Heathrow.

But an independent report commissioned by development agency One North East said that even if the move was green-lighted by Government, it could cost the region an initial £21.5m and up to £2m a year thereafter.

The conclusions are thought to have ended the pursuit of a PSO but development chiefs are set to lobby Government for fairer treatment of regional airlines wanting to fly in and out of Heathrow.

WIND farm developers in the Tees Valley say they want simpler planning rules to tackle the UK’s woeful onshore achievements. Their call follows former Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott's attack on ‘nimbyism’ at this week’s annual conference of the British Wind Energy Association (BWEA), which said as many as 75% of applications for wind farms fell at the first planning hurdle, leaving private companies and the taxpayer to pick up a massive bill for appeals and putting back the UK's schedule to achieve 15% of energy from renewable resources by 2020. Mr Prescott called for an obligation on councils to provide wind farm sites. But  Jeffrey Corrigan, MD of North-east developer Broadview Energy said he couldn’t see how the process could be simplified.

The developer received approval from Stockton Council for its wind farm at Hilton and Seamer last Friday but has vowed to appeal against a refusal for the same scheme by Hambleton Council, whose boundary it straddles.