Heathrow expansion: First legal case filed

Heathrow’s third runway faces its first legal challenge only days after the government gave it the green light.A residents’ group in Teddington, southwest London, has accused the chairman of the airports commission, Sir Howard Davies, of ‘bias’ over his decision to recommend the third runway to government.In a letter to the department of transport, the group said Sir Davies’s recommendation should be disregarded because of his paid role as an advisor to a Heathrow shareholder.Teddington Action Group said Sir Davies’s did not declare his role at GIC Privates Ltd in the commission’s register of interests.The group challenges the legality of ministers accepting the recommendation of the airports commission.There are expected to be more legal challenges to Heathrow’s expansion.Friends of the Earth have already written to the DfT criticising the way it handled the decision.According to The Times, the letter accuses the government of “substantive procedural flaws” by announcing that a third runway will be built before parliament has scrutinised the decision.