Jonathan Essex, vice-chair of GACC, speaks to Mark Dunford about London Gatwick's proposed Northern Runway plans
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00:00First of all, could you introduce yourself, please?
00:03Hi, my name's Jonathan Essex and I'm Vice-Chair of the Gatwick Area Conservation Campaign.
00:07And can you explain what we're doing here today, considering the report that came out today?
00:11So today, which is the day before the decision on whether Gatwick expansion takes place,
00:17today the UK's independent Climate Change Committee, an independent body connected to the government,
00:23produced its study to say what the government should do to reduce emissions down for the period from 2038 to 2042,
00:33which is exactly the time when this new runway is being developed for, if you like.
00:39And what they said is that we should really push back aviation expansion
00:44and there's really no need for any new aviation capacity in the next decade.
00:49We should instead wait for these so-called sustainable aviation fuels to prove their worth.
00:55And then if they do come forward, if they are successful, then that will be the time to grow aviation later.
01:02And given Heidi Alexander's comments we heard last night, it looks like that the plans will be given the go-ahead.
01:10What's the next steps for your campaign if it is given the green light tomorrow?
01:16Well, if that political decision is dangerous and irresponsible in the way that Heidi Alexander was suggesting it might be yesterday,
01:26then I really think we should take a hard look at the decision
01:30and Heidi Alexander should expect a legal challenge or two coming her way.
01:36And how can people get involved with your campaign if they feel so strongly about the decision tomorrow?
01:42So we will be launching a crowdfunding campaign on the Crowd Justice website.
01:49Actually it's being launched today so it's now going live.
01:53People would like to donate and we're asking people to support us to take this to the first step
01:58to see if it can be heard at the courts.
02:01We want to raise the amount of money for each step of the campaign as we go forward.
02:05Brilliant, thank you very much.