A Kent MP believes expansion plans at Gatwick Airport haven't been sufficiently scrutinised.

Tom Tugendhat, the representative for Tonbridge and Malling, called for the government to use “some imagination” to ensure all necessary due diligence is done regarding the proposed work, in a letter he sent to transport minister Robert Courts.

It comes after Gatwick announced it had made a loss of more than £244 million in the first six months of this year as the coronavirus health crisis continued to hit international travel.

The airport hopes to transform its emergency runway into a fully functioning second runway but only 569,000 passengers flew from Gatwick from the start of the year until June 30, 2021.

Among those calling for a suspension of the work at Gatwick Airport is CAGNE - the umbrella aviation community and environment group for Sussex, Surrey and Kent, and the Gatwick Area Conservation Campaign (GACC) - which has joined the Aviation Environment Federation (AEF) and 14 UK community groups from eight airports in calling for all airport expansion to be halted.

Mr Tugendhat says he has been copied into much of the communications between GACC and Mr Courts.

“Two things are clear from that correspondence," said Mr Tugendhat who served as an intelligence officer in Afghanistan and has also been sharing his thoughts on the ongoing trouble in the country.

"First, that government policy requires any significant growth at an airport to be robustly scrutinised so that both its benefits and its adverse impact can be assessed, and an informed decision made.

“That is, clearly, right and I welcome it.

"Secondly, that there has been no such scrutiny in relation to Gatwick's proposed main runway growth, of some 16 million passengers per annum.

“Furthermore, the government appears to have no current plans to ensure the scrutiny its policy requires will happen. That cannot be right.”

In the letter sent to Mr Courts on Wednesday, July 28, Mr Tugendhat said he was eager to meet him to discuss the matter as soon as possible.

He says he welcomed the fact the runway growth plans will be reviewed through a development consent order (DCO) process.

Once all the work is completed, the airport is aiming to expand passenger numbers to around 70 million by 2032-33.

But he added: “However, unless its scope is changed, the standby runway DCO process cannot refuse consent for main runway growth.

"It, therefore, will not achieve the scrutiny of main runway growth that is required.

“Those circumstances mean that some imagination will be needed to find a different way of achieving the government's policy in Gatwick's unique circumstances, and I'd be grateful if we could meet as soon as possible to explore how that could be done.

“This is an important issue in Tonbridge, Edenbridge and Mailing and, I understand for many other communities near the airport and under flight paths.

“Sixteen million passengers of growth will have very significant noise, climate, congestion and other impacts.

“It is more than the aggregate growth at the five other UK airports that are currently seeking expansion.”

In 2018, a draft plan was released, revealing ideas to increase the capacity of the current runway, routinely use an existing standby runway by the mid-2020s, and safeguard land for a potential additional runway in the future.

Charles Lloyd, a member of the GACC committee, said: "Hats off to Tom Tugendhat for highlighting the crazy situation where Gatwick Airport can plan for massive growth in flights and passengers, with no scrutiny of the main element of that growth.

"More flights will mean more noise, more health problems for communities, more infrastructure congestion and more carbon emissions. All these things need to be properly considered – as they are in any normal planning process.

"Gatwick is being allowed to slip through the cracks in planning policy in a way that’s completely inconsistent with government policy."

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