This updated version of my previous post was published today in the Comment column of The Bishop’s Stortford Independent.       ==========!!========== Wednesday, May 26th, 2021 was an extraordinary day in both national and local politics. It was, in my opinion, a day of rotten politics. At Westminster, the Prime Minister’s former chief aide, […]

The following cross-opposition party press statement was issued this morning in response to populism turned to lies from Residents for Uttlesford (R4U) about their role in the recently ended appeal hearings into Uttlesford DC’s refusal of planning permission for growth of passengers, planes and pollution at Stansted Airport. The R4U fairy story can be read […]

Last week I was invited to attend a protest at Stansted Airport by easyJet employees. They were angry at the airline’s threat to pull its ground operations out of Stansted, with consequential staff redundancies, whilst the company had been taking large amounts of taxpayers’ money from the government during the Covid-19 pandemic and had handed […]

Stansted Airport employees unhappy with easyJet and other aviation employers demonstrated at the airport yesterday. They had been prevented from demonstrating near the terminal building and airline passengers. I took the train to the airport and eventually found them by a roundabout beyond the employees’ car park. I chatted with Claire Lees, the Unite union’s […]

I was puzzled and concerned by an interview on BBC TV’s Look East evening bulletin last week. The interview was between the BBC’s Stewart White and Cllr John Lodge, the Leader of Uttlesford District Council. The news item reported on the district council’s planning committee’s refusal on January 24th of Stansted Airport’s application to raise […]

Last Friday’s planning committee meeting outcome took me by surprise. Members voted 10:0 to refuse Stansted Airport’s long-in-the-deciding planning application. Wearing my Ward Member hat for Stansted North, I had, in the morning, asked the committee not to approve the application on the grounds the Council first needed to challenge the Government over its muddled […]

The words above are not mine. They were spoken by HRH the Prince of Wales in Davos, Switzerland two days ago. He was referring to the Climate Emergency. His words are as relevant to councillors and residents in the Uttlesford district as they are to very rich business people and world politicians at the 2020 […]

Uttlesford Council yesterday overwhelmingly decided to withhold planning permission from Stansted Airport for more passengers and flights until the new planning committee has reviewed parts of the decision taken last November to give approval for growth. It was a bold, unprecedented step that brings with it significant reputational and financial risks for both the applicant […]

From Uttlesford’s Liberal Democrats, here’s a big “THANK YOU!” to all the district’s voters who put their “X” next to one of our names on Thursday. The outcome was a greater swing away from the Conservatives than anyone could have anticipated. The main beneficiaries were the Residents for Uttlesford candidates, so “Congratulations!” to their mostly […]

PRESS STATEMENT ON AIRPORT LEGAL AGREEMENT – FIRST EXTRAORDINARY MEETING FAILS, SECOND MEETING TO BE CALLED TO STRENGTHEN THE DEAL Liberal Democrat councillors continue to work with some Conservative and all Residents councillors to strengthen the Planning Legal Agreement (S.106), in order to ensure Stansted Airport Limited’s legal obligations are a fair deal for the […]