All airports designated by the Secretary of State are required to establish
an airport consultative committee, or some form of consultation, if a
committee is not seen as the appropriate forum for consultation. The airport
management are the body responsible for establishing the committee, but once
established it has to be independent of the airport. The government has
issued guidelines for the structure and running of these committees.

The one exception is Farnborough Airport. TAG Aviation, managers of
Farnborough, have refused to establish a committee, or accept any
responsibility for establishing a committee. Instead an illegitimate committee
has been established by Rushmoor Borough Council - a committee that does
not follow government guidelines, and fails to meet either the Civil Aviation
Act or the Fairoaks ruling.

The committee should be equally divided between the three sectional interests.
On the illegitimate Rushmoor committee, of the seven seats (one third of 21
seats) allocated to local councils Rushmoor have 4 councilors, of the seven
seats allocated to local community interests, only two have been allocated
to groups who remotely represent the local community.

The inaugural meting of the illegitimate Rushmoor committee was a disaster.
Pat Deveraux, a county councilor and Rushmoor councilor, refused to allow
anyone to speak who had a position contrary to TAG.

Not content with virtually excluding the local community, Rushmoor and TAG,
are now attempting to impose an 'independent' chairman on the committee, a
person who is unfit to chair any airfield consultation committee. He is Robin
Mackay, currently an adviser to Fairoaks on planning matters, and previously
manager at Fairoaks.

It was Mackay who was responsible for excluding all community representation
at Fairoaks. A situation only resolved through the local community seeking
relief in the High Court. The judge was scathing in his attack on Fairoaks and
the way they had behaved to exclude the local community. [see Richard Buxton
or AEF for Fairoaks ruling]

The next meeting of the illegitimate Rushmoor committee will be at 2pm
Thursday afternoon 17 July 2003, at the BAE Systems HQ alongside the airport.
Part of the government guidelines is that such meetings should be well
publicized, there has been no publicity.

It is important that this meeting is well attended by the public.

What activists do after the meeting, having gained access to the heart of
the BAE Systems establishment, is entirely up to them.

[BVEJ newsletters passim]

 http://www.farnborough-airport.org.uk
 http://www.aef.org.uk
 http://www.richardbuxton.co.uk


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BVEJ Urgent Action 12 July 2003
Published by Blackwater Valley Environmental Justice
 http://bvej.freewebsites.com  http://bvej.o-f.com
 bvej@bigfoot.com  bvej@hotmail.com  bvej@junglemate.com  bvej2002@yahoo.com

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