Green Party Campaigns

Standing up against airport expansion

Across the UK, from major hubs like Heathrow and Stansted to regional airports like Southampton to tiny airports in Gloucestershire, the businesses that own airports are seeking to add new terminals and build new and extended runways so they can add more flights. Greens everywhere are helping to support local people in objecting to plans and stopping these disastrous new developments.

Find local campaigns

South-West Hampshire Green Party - Southampton

Staverton airport - successful campaign in Gloucestershire:

Richmond and Twickenham Green Party - Farnborough

South and East England Green Parties team up to fight regional airport expansion

Eastern Green Party Stansted campaign

Heathrow campaign links:

What's the alternative?

We're not against all flights. Planes can be very useful, but we don't believe expanding airports makes sense environmentally nor is it money well spent.

Aviation is the fastest growing source of greenhouse gas emissions. Aircraft blight the lives of thousands of people living under flight paths and anywhere near airports. They cause local air pollution and water pollution, and the noise causes problems for many miles around.

Expanding airports would add to all this and of course, devastate even more of our countryside. Unfortunately, we can't have it both ways here. We can't increase air travel and meet our targets for CO2 reductions at the same time. So if we want a world that's still beautiful enough to be worth visiting in the first place, we have to manage air transport instead of letting it mushroom without our consent.

Instead of airport expansion we need better ground transport: we need to make it easier – and cheaper – to choose a high speed train instead of a plane, especially for those short hops.

We know this is an issue that polarises people. Cheap flights have opened the world up to many more than the privileged few who originally took to flying. But I think most reasonable people will be happy to use alternatives more often if we help by providing good sustainable transport methods that don't come with so much damage to people's health and the environment.

More about our transport policies

No more airport expansion - animation:

London Mayor candidate, Sian Berry helps launch North London Against Heathrow Expansion:

Census Alert

The Green Party set up this campaign in 2007 to stop arms company Lockheed Martin from being given the contract to run the UK Census in 2011.

The campaign is supported by the Green Party, politicians from Plaid Cymru, Labour and the Scottish National Party, and others opposed to the arms trade and concerned about personal privacy.

Find out more at the Census Alert website.