In the wake of the row over the proposed expansion of Southend Airport, Conservative MP for Southend West David Amess has called on the Government to look into how public inquiries are held.
During the debate following the Queen’s Speech in Parliament, Mr Amess said:
“I am very disappointed that there is no proposal in the Gracious Speech to look at the criteria for holding public inquiries.
“The issue that is causing the most interest and concern in Southend at present is the expansion of Southend airport, which is very controversial for all sorts of reasons.
“Last week, a public meeting was organised by our excellent Leigh town council. It was very well attended sand the overwhelming majority of residents were concerned about proposals for the expansion of the airport.
“Southend council will look at the proposals in January and the Secretary of State cannot give a view until after that planning meeting. Depending on how the meeting goes, he may or may not decide to call in the plans and hold a public inquiry.
“I have asked the advice of the Library and civil servants about the criteria for holding a public inquiry. They are not clear to me. In fact, I am of the opinion that the matter depends on the judgment of the Secretary of State of the day, but how he makes that judgment is not clearly set out, so I was disappointed that there were no proposals about that in the Gracious Speech.”
Firstly I would like to add a important meeting not attend by the local MP David Amess ! Very well attend ! in a ward with over 70000 residents less than 200 were at the meeting and not all those were from Southend West or objected to the expansion.If the airport expansion was such a BIG ISSUE with the residents of west Southend why were the numbers attending not in the thousands ? For Mr Amess to stand in the house and state that the majority of the residents were concerned about the expansion proposals is to say the least a twist of the truth. Less than .3% of the residents he represents attended that meeting ! ! ! Maybe Mr Amess you should be looking at a bigger picture.