Luton Airport, now rebranded as Luton Rising, is seeking a Development Consent Order to allow it to increase its passenger numbers from 18 million per year to 32 million by 2038. Plans of this size are regarded as Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects, and as such are required to undergo an examination by the Planning Inspectorate which will prepare a report to the Minister of Transport who has the final say on whether the development can go ahead. In order to have our views considered, Hitchin Forum has prepared a submission to the Planning Inspectorate outlining its arguments opposing the development. You can read the submission here –Hitchin Forum Summary of case.
The required Public Examination of Luton Airport’s owners, Luton Rising’s (LR’s) application for the Development Consent Order (DCO) closed on February 10th. The final round of submissions to the Examination, consisting of 113 documents, was published on 9th February on the National Infrastructure Planning website. These included statements of common ground between Luton Rising and various stakeholders such as National Highways, local councils (including both North Hertfordshire Council and Hertfordshire County Council) and Thames Water. These documents list issues which have arisen during the Examination, stating the applicant’s (i.e. Luton Rising’s) and the stakeholder’s positions, and whether or not there is agreement between them. Those areas where there is disagreement are likely to be those on which the Inspectors will focus in order to make their recommendation. Areas of disagreement include surface access issues, aircraft noise and increased carbon emissions.
The Inspectors have compiled their report and recommendation to the Secretary of State for Transport, which had to be submitted 3 months after the end of the Inquiry (i.e. May 10th). The Secretary of State has 3 months to publish a decision. The timetable was set before the general election was announced, and we have new secretaries of State, so it could be that this timetable is disrupted to some extent.
A fuller version of this brief account can be found here;
https://www.hitchinforum.org.uk/luton-airport-update-march-2024/