Environment Agency chief expresses Heathrow "disappointment"

The chairman of of the government's own environment watchdog, Lord Chris Smith, yesterday slammed the decision to approve a third runway at Heathrow, describing the move as "deeply disappointing" and vowing that if expansion does go ahead the Environment Agency will be "strenuous and rigorous" in ensuring noise and air pollution limits are not breached.

Writing in the Sunday Times, Smith, a former government minister, launched a broadside against both the government's decision to approve plans to expand Heathrow and its broader environmental policy, accusing it of failing to develop a "coherent" low carbon strategy similar to those recently launched in Spain, Japan and South Korea and proposed by US president-elect Barack Obama.

"Unlike the US, the UK has no comprehensive, integrated strategy for the creation of green technology," he wrote. "There have been some welcome, relatively small-scale initiatives on home insulation and renewable energy but no coherent, determined, national initiative."

He argued that the Heathrow decision was a symptom of the absence of a wider low carbon strategy, and dismissed the government's claims that a third runway is needed to bolster UK competitiveness as "unproven". He also suggested that the expansion would make it harder for the UK to meet its emission reduction targets, accusing the government of "heading wilfully in the opposite direction ".

Lord Smith vowed that the Environment Agency would impose an extremely tough inspection regime on any expanded airport. "Ensuring a watertight system of monitoring air quality is going to be difficult because pollution will come both from aircraft and from all the ground traffic getting to and from the airport, but we'll be tough," he wrote.

Smith also threw down the gauntlet to the government over the impending decision on whether or not to grant approval to a new coal-fire power station at Kingsnorth in Kent, arguing that the only way for the government to "get back onto the front foot" and regain some environmentyal credibility is to insist that the project can only recieve approval if carbon capture technology is fitted from the start.

Smith's opposition to expanision was mirrored yesterday by London Mayor Boris Johnson who reiterated his commitment to lead a legal challenge to the decision.

Speaking on BBC One's Andrew Marr Show, the Mayor said the government lacked the "guts" to allow MPs to vote on expansion and expressed confidence the third runway "will not be built".

He added that the majority of Londoners were against the plans and called on the government to again consider alternative means of bolstering airport capacity, including his controversial proposals for a new airport in the Thames Estuary.

"Heathrow airport is basically a planning error of the 1940s, we are mad to be intensifying that error by greatly increasing the number of flights over London," he said.

In related news, a group of senior MPs called for a Commons investigation into the aviation industry's Heathrow lobbying activities and its close links to government.

According to Guardian reports, the MPs are concerned about an apparent "revolving door" policy between Downing Street, Whitehall and BAA that has seen Tony Blair's former spokesman, Tom Kelly, take charge of BAA's communication activity and Joe Irvin, a former head of corporate affairs at the airport operator join Gordon Brown;s team at No 10.

A number of other senior figures have similarly held roles within both Whitehall and BAA and last year the campaign for Heathrow expansion was cited by the public administration select committee as an example of why there needed to be more public scrutiny of lobbying activities, concluding that there was " widespread public concern" that "public consultations have been unbalanced in the favour of these [lobbying groups]".

Susan Kramer, a Liberal Democrat MP, told the Guardian that a Commons investigation into the links between the government and BAA and the lobbying practices employed was essential.