THE leader of the Liberal Democrats said "it looks like" Eastleigh councillors made the right decision when they approved plans to expand the runway at Southampton Airport.


During his visit to Romsey this morning Sir Ed Davey answered questions on climate change and the controversial plans to expand the runway at Southampton Airport by 164m.


It comes as the proposals were approved by Liberal Democrat-run Eastleigh Borough Council on April 10.

Last week campaigners asked the government to call in the plans.

Robert Jenrick asked to call-in Southampton Airport plans


When asked whether councillors made the right decision, Sir Davey said: "It looks like they have if you look at it from the safety prospective and look at it taking into account the fact that they have put a cap on the number of people who can use the airport in the future which is a lower cap than was in the previous masterplan. That is just to me that they are reducing the use of the airport while making it safer, that seems to me quite a sensible approach. What they were doing is making sure that now Flybe is not operating the much smaller planes, that the planes that need to come in for the regional economy that they can land safely and that needed the existing runway just to be extended, that is about safety."


He added:"I think they got a balance right between maintaining a very important regional airport part of the network which in the future when we have green zero carbon flights we will need and they have done that in a way which doesn't allow for long-term expansion of the airport."


It comes as some welcomed the runway expansion saying it would boost the economy and create new jobs while others raised concerns on the grounds of climate change, noise and pollution.

Southampton Airport plans approved 


Sir Davey said: "As I understand it the Liberal Democrats managed to get good agreements on noise. The reality is we are going to have to have flights that are green and what's been really encouraging is that the technologies have been coming on far more quickly than people had expected. A few years ago people were talking about green flight in the 2040s and are now talking about green flight in the 2030s. If we make the right investment green flight is achievable far more quickly."


He said the world is in a climate emergency and everyone has to "take this extremely seriously".
"Liberal Democrats have argued for a green economic recovery where we are suggesting there should be £150bn invested over the next few years in transitioning our economy," he added.

He said green transport is among the measures local councils can take to tackle climate change.

His comments came as he visited the Lemon and Jinja cafe in Romsey.