Opponents to a third runway at Heathrow have lost their legal challenge at the High Court.
Four judicial reviews were brought on a total of 22 grounds of challenge, including inconsistency with the 2016 United Nations Paris Agreement on climate change, by London Borough of Hillingdon and adjacent boroughs who will be affected by the extra noise and pollution, the Mayor of London, environmental groups and an individual. The promoters of a rival Heathrow scheme brought a fifth judicial review.
Argument centred on whether the government’s National Policy Statement supporting the expansion failed to take account of the impact on noise, climate change and levels of pollution, in Spurrier & Ors v Secretary of State for Transport (Heathrow judgments) [2019] EWHC (Admin) 1070.
Tim Crosland, director of environmental group Plan B, said the court had upheld the government’s ‘surprising contention that the Paris Agreement is “irrelevant” to government policy on climate change’.
