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Redhill Aerodrome

Volume 408: debated on Tuesday 1 July 2003

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To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what assistance his Department is providing to Redhill Aerodrome Ventures in relation to the development of their proposal to establish an international airport at Redhill Aerodrome; at what cost to public funds; and if he will make a statement. [122894]

The Department has held discussions with several promoters of proposals for new airport capacity that are alternatives to, or variants of, options set out in the Government's consultation document. The aim has been to provide guidance on the methodology used to appraise options in the SERAS study and the information that will be needed by the Department in order to appraise alternative ideas submitted as part of the consultation.Where new work on such alternatives has required the involvement of the Department and its consultants—such as traffic forecasting and modelling of economic benefits—the direct costs will be met by the promoter. The cost of appraising alternative schemes will be met by the Department.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what contracts have been signed between Halcrow and his Department in relation to the proposal to develop an international airport at Redhill. [122895]

No contracts have been signed between the Department and Halcrow concerning the proposal by Redhill Aerodrome Ltd. to develop a stand-alone passenger airport.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will list the meetings which have taken place between his Department and representatives of Redhill Aerodrome Ventures since September 2002; on what dates the meetings took place; and what the purpose of each meeting was. [122897]

Officials from the Department met representatives of Redhill Aerodrome Ltd. on 12 February and 26 March 2003. The purpose of these technical meetings was to (a) provide guidance on the methodology used to appraise options in the SERAS study and (b) to advise on the type and level of information needed by the Department in order to appraise the alternative option presented by Redhill in their original response to the airports consultation.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport whether he has received assurances from Redhill Aerodrome Ventures that their proposal to develop Redhill Aerodrome into an international airport could be carried forward with no call on public funds. [122898]

The Redhill Aerodrome Ltd. response to "The Future Development of Air Transport in the United Kingdom (South East)", submitted in December 2002, included a statement about the availability of funding. We will make publicly available in due course all responses to the consultation, except those marked confidential. In the mean time publication is a matter for the authors.The Government's approach to the funding of future airport development schemes is described in paragraph 15.3 of "The Future Development of Air Transport in the United Kingdom: South East" consultation document. This states that the Government expect the current pattern of private sector financing to continue and that it does not expect to commit public funds to future airport development.