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by Transport Safety Organisation (Author), Gordan Glass (Author)
Published for the Heathrow Consultation process: the facts remain so very pertinent. The Heathrow Report 2015: "What the Airports Commission Missed..." - This book is the author's contribution to the debate on the proposed expansion of Heathrow Airport. It focuses on the harmful long-term societal problems of Heathrow, which have been magnified every few years by government decision-making, based on short-term thinking and questionable aims, driven by business, always in the face of strong public protest. The new airports decision-making process does not properly take into account the many aspects of airport operations that are detrimental to the population of Greater London; such as the probability of an aircraft disaster on London, which is high, at around one crash every 10 years or so. The potential for catastrophe has been well researched and detailed in television documentaries over the years. Yet these facts continue to be ignored by decision-makers.There is no public body with specific responsibility for managing the risks to the health and safety of the general public on the ground, in response to the vast resources poured into putting forward the interests of business. There needs to be.On a wider level, democracy in the UK is failing. This book uses the Heathrow issue to illustrate how and why this is so. It offers recommendations on how this situation can be transformed, leading us towards a more sensible future.At the Heathrow Terminal 5 planning inquiry in 1998, the author established that the aircraft crash risk on London from Heathrow operations at that time was one crash every 5 to 14 years. He pointed out that no body was responsible for calculating or managing the societal risk to London. He found these facts unacceptable then, yet they persist today.Accordingly, the Inspector reported: "Terminal 5 would increase the risk of a major crash involving many casualties on the ground which would raise questions about the future role of Heathrow" and "the fact that more people would be exposed to material risk represents a real and substantial objection to Terminal 5". Yet the Government approved Terminal 5 and it was built.Last December, the current Airports Commission short-listed two additional new runway proposals for Heathrow, based on its Government mandate to "maintain the UK's status as an international aviation hub" - apparently without considering the risks to London from the "complex and congested" airspace above, nor the inquiry Inspector's report that: "I agree with BAA that the evidence placed before me demonstrates that a third main runway at Heathrow would have such severe and widespread impacts on the environment as to be totally unacceptable".This book details many of the enduring problems and myths about Heathrow and how democracy is failing us in the UK, showing that it is time to clip the wings of the Heathrow monster and choose a more sensible future.Read this book to find out what's wrong with Heathrow and what needs to be done about it, before it is too late...
