PLANNING officers at Eastleigh council should hang their heads in shame for recommending that the Eastleigh Local Area Committee approves expansion at Southampton Airport when it meets on March 25th.

The proposals will damage the environment, blight the lives of many hundreds of residents and set back the progress towards carbon neutrality.

Both Southampton and Winchester councils are making positive moves towards a more sustainable, carbon neutral future but Eastleigh council seems determined to go in the opposite direction.

Eastleigh council has in the past prided itself on its environmentally friendly credentials and had at one time an ambition be the first carbon neutral council in the country.

How convenient that it held that the airport could be excluded from CO2 calculations as it was part of the national transport infrastructure.

Yes, indeed this is so but if Eastleigh council approves the runway extension and increased parking provision, it cannot then attempt to wash its hands of the increase in carbon emissions which will follow.

Also convenient for Eastleigh council that most of those whose lives will be adversely affected by larger, noisier and more polluting planes are not Eastleigh voters and can be entirely disregarded by those who will make the decision.

Ultimately, we all depend on a healthy environment for our wellbeing and to imperil this for limited short-term economic benefit does not bode well for the future of the human race.

Lindsi Bluemel

Southampton