Email to Steve Jordan - New Leader of Cheltenham Council

Dear Steve,

I read with interest the article in this week’s Gloucester Echo which reported that you are now to take over as the leader of the Cheltenham Council.

I trust that you will now use your position to live up to the promises of the Lib Dems on opposing airport expansion by withdrawing your support for the developments at Staverton Airport and showing the strength of leadership that will befit a position such as yours.

Just in case you have been too busy to keep in touch with the latest thinking of your party on airport expansion, I enclose a link to a statement from the Lib Deb Shadow Transport Secretary where he says "In the light of the Stern Review, the Government must urgently revise its plans for aviation expansion" and goes onto say "The previous White Paper's 'predict and provide' strategy for air transport was fundamentally flawed. A new approach is needed to help reduce emissions from aviation."

http://www.libdems.org.uk/transport/story.html?id=11550

In case you are still in any doubt about the result of allowing this expansion to proceed, the Gloucester Echo also carried a report that Skytime has ordered 6 additional Lear Jets. These will be able to use the runway once it is extended.

As I have previously pointed out, flying Business Jets is the most carbon intensive mode of travel and Skytime's claims that it is carbon neutral by offsetting simply demonstrates a lack of understanding of the science behind the damage that they are doing. The emissions from this one development will negate the efforts that many thousands of people have made to reduce their CO2 emissions.

In case you have not noticed, much of Gloucestershire has been flooded this week whilst at the same time much of Southern Europe is baking in crippling heat. Climate Change is accelerating and the problems of today are mere foretastes of what is to come.
As your MP (Martin Horwood) has pointed out in his position as the Lib Dem Environment Spokesman, we need to be aiming at 90% cuts in CO2 emissions to provide any sort of future for our children.

I trust that you will use your new position to pursue the policies that your party has publicly committed to.

Regards,
Kevin Lister