As London Luton Airport Limited says it is planning to make its expanded airport greener and more sustainable the leader of the Luton’s Liberal Democrat councillors, Cllr. David Franks, asks just how green they intend it to be.

“We’ll believe them if they tell us they are going to abandon plans to concrete over the second-best park in Bedfordshire. We’ll believe them if they tell us they are going to abandon plans to make Ashcroft Road and Wigmore Lane major access routes to their airport.”

Cllr David Franks, Council Group Leader, Luton Liberal Democrats

The Luton Council owned company claims it is putting off until next year its application to the government for permission to expand the airport from 18 million passengers a year to 32 million and wants to make it greener and more sustainable.

Commenting on the announcement Cllr. David Franks said “We’ll believe them if they tell us they are going to abandon plans to concrete over the second-best park in Bedfordshire. We’ll believe them if they tell us they are going to abandon plans to make Ashcroft Road and Wigmore Lane major access routes to their airport.”

“In spite of constant complaints from those living near the airport or under its flight paths they are not doing anywhere near enough to deal with air quality and noise problems. There’s not enough monitoring of air pollution and without the information you cannot even begin to work out how to deal with the problem.”

Luton Liberal Democrats have been lobbying for years for more air quality monitoring around schools in the eastern and southern areas of Luton concerned that the potential damage to children’s lungs cannot be assessed because the technical information is not being collected and analysed.