Campaigners have lost a bid to take their legal fight against the government over plans for a two-runway operation at Gatwick Airport to the Court of Appeal. The dispute concerns the £2.2bn expansion of the West Sussex airport, which will move its emergency runway 12m (39ft) north to allow 100,000 more flights a year.
Peter Barclay and campaign group Communities Against Gatwick Noise Emissions (Cagne) previously took legal action against the Department for Transport over the decision to approve the plans, including over claims that the government did not properly assess the climate impact of the scheme. The plans were approved by Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander in September.
Cagne and Barclay told a hearing in January the scheme was unlawful, claiming climate impact was not properly assessed. The challenge was part of a wider legal fight over whether the proposed expansion could be allowed to go ahead.
Mr Justice Mould dismissed the challenges to the airport's expansion in June, finding that it was "neither illogical nor contradictory" for Alexander not to refuse the proposed development "on the basis that it would have a material impact on the ability of Government to meet its carbon reduction targets". He also rejected an argument about the need for the expansion at Gatwick, given the proximity to Heathrow.
Last month, Barclay and Cagne asked the Court of Appeal to allow them to challenge the ruling, claiming that the judge was wrong. But in a ruling on Tuesday, Lord Justice Holgate and Lord Justice Dove dismissed the appeal bids.
Why did the Court of Appeal reject the case?
The judges said the appeal grounds could not proceed because they had no realistic chance of success. In a 29-page ruling, they said:
We conclude that each of the grounds of appeal raised by each appellant is unarguable.
Neither appeal has a real prospect of success. We also consider that there are no other compelling reasons for either appeal to be heard.
The two senior judges also said that the previous ruling was "detailed and thorough". Their decision means the campaigners cannot continue that legal route unless another step becomes available.
Gatwick is the UK's second busiest airport and one of the busiest single-runway airports in the world. The expansion will allow the site to be used for the departures of narrow-bodied planes such as Airbus A320s and Boeing 737s.
What did the campaigners say after the ruling?
Following the decision, Barclay said:
We are very disappointed with the Court's decision. We took this challenge as far as we could because we believed that the decision to allow Gatwick to expand was fundamentally flawed.
It was not supported by government policy, would only serve to line the pockets of the airport and airlines, and would do so at the expense of local residents and the climate.
Cagne said:
Residents should be immensely proud of what they have achieved in holding Gatwick Airport's shareholders to account.
This proposed new runway will come at a significant cost to both the taxpayer and the planet.
The group has argued throughout the process that the environmental effects of the expansion were not properly considered and that the scheme would affect local communities.
What does Gatwick say the project will deliver?
Pierre-Hugues Schmit, chief executive of London Gatwick, said the decision to approve the plans "was taken properly and lawfully". He added that the ruling brought an end to an eight-year planning and legal process that had repeatedly examined the expansion proposal.
We are also very pleased that this ruling, from senior Court of Appeal Judges, brings to an end an eight-year planning and legal process which has carefully tested and scrutinised every aspect of our expansion plans on multiple occasions.
This final ruling means that we can now press on with the important job of bringing this exciting project to life and move forward into the design and delivery phase.
Schmit said the Northern Runway project was expected to deliver 14,000 new jobs and a £1bn boost to the economy every year. The airport said the expansion would now move into the design and delivery phase after the legal process ended.
Gatwick's Northern Runway project remains one of the most significant airport expansion proposals in the UK, with both supporters and opponents continuing to argue over its impact on capacity, jobs, residents and the climate. The court ruling removes a further legal obstacle to the scheme after years of scrutiny.
What happens next for the expansion?
The airport can now press ahead with the next stage of the project, subject to the remaining design and delivery work. The plans involve changing the use of the emergency runway so the airport can operate more flights, including additional departures on the Northern Runway.
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