This week Parliament has finally approved a new runway at Heathrow Airport which is great news for us in the West Country. Options for expanding Gatwick, Luton, Stansted or a new airport east of the capital were always going to be less attractive to us than an airport next to the M4, M3 and the railway line that serves our region.
It’s no wonder therefore that business groups in the West Country have been vocal in their support of Heathrow. The additional long haul connectivity is much needed and with the arrival of western rail access, Somerset will be well under two hours by train from the airport.
Now people might think I’m being disloyal to our fantastic regional airport. I’m not. I’m a big fan of Bristol Airport; it employs a lot of my constituents, has a good number of local companies in its supply chain and has an expanding route network that is benefiting our economy too. I strongly support plans for expansion at Bristol as well.
However like many travellers locally, I’ll tend to use Bristol whenever I’m flying short haul and providing they have that route. I’ll head to Heathrow for everything else. I’m not averse to flying from Bristol to Amsterdam or Paris and then on from there but I’d never do that if I could get to my destination directly from LHR.
Parliament’s strong support for Heathrow tells its own story - MPs from other regions all over the country see things the same way. Our regional and national economy has been held back for too long by not having the capacity to expand our connections to the world’s emerging markets. I’m glad that this week, we’ve put that right.