PleiadeAssociates
A narrative of the history of the enduring power of an ad hoc decision is in preparation. For now a mere chronology is given – even this reveals the enduring tenacity of the British Civil Service to ill-founded but entrenched presumptions in the face of rational decision making…
It is quite clear, looking back, that at least from 1953 onwards the assumption was consistently made that Stansted would be the third London Airport. That assumption helped to determine the routing of air traffic, including military traffic… and also helped to determine the distribution of military airfields and other installations.
Anthony Greenwood, Minister of Housing and Local Government. 1967.1942 USAF establishes a base at Stansted
1946 USAF relinquishes Stansted to the Air Ministry
1949 Ministry of Civil Aviation takes control to "develop Stansted Airport in Essex… for diversions from London (Heathrow)".
1953 White Paper: Cmd 8902.
1954 White Paper: Cmd 9206. Gatwick selected as the second London airport.
1956 USAF re-acquires Stansted and constructs a new high capacity runway.
1957 USAF departs from Stansted. Control reverts to the Ministry of Transport.
1963 Report of the Inter-departmental Committee on the The Third London Aiport: Recommends Stansted as the third London Airport. CAP 199
1965 British Aiports Authority created, controlling Heathrow, Gatwick, Prestwick and Stansted.
1965 Stansted: Report of the Inquiry into Local Objections. Ministry of Housing and Local Government.
1967 White Paper: The Third London Airport. Stansted advanced as the third London airport. Cmnd 3259
1971 Report of the Commission on the Third London Airport (Roskill Report): Stansted rejected as a option.
1971 Maplin (Foulness) announced as the third London Airport
1978 Airports Policy. The Maplin project is abandoned. Cmd 7084.
1979 Report of the Advisory Committee on Airports Policy Report: The need for a third London Airport.
1979 Report of the Study Group on South East Airports: Possible sites for a Third London Airport. Stansted listed.
1979 The Government selects Stansted as the Third London Airport, subject to a Public Inquiry. Hansard, 17 December 1979, Volume 76. Number 89. Column 35.
1981 - 83 The Airports Inquiries (Eyre Report, 1983).
1985 White Paper: Airports Policy.
1985 British Aiports Authority privatised as BAA plc.
1993 RUCATSE: Report of the Runway Capacity in the South East Working Group.
2003 The future of Air Transport: White Paper
There are two published commentaries on the rise of Stansted Airport, but none on the contemporary process:
A rigorous exposition and analysis of the political context.
A partizan tract by the unintentional 'Godfather' of Stansted Airport. As a member of the Roskill Commission, his dissenting report advanced a new airport at Maplin as the preferred option – adding that in his view Stansted was the worst option studied by the Commission (he was not alone in this opinion).
In a bizarre disregard of the evidence, his report was accepted by the government as the basis for policy. Thus, throughly duped, he cleared the way for the eventual re-emergence of Stansted, after the inevitable rejection of the patently unfeasible Maplin.
The origins of Stansted Airport have more than a little of "Yes, Minster"* about them:
Originally an American airbase during the World War II, the USAF relinquished Stansted to the Air Ministry in 1946. In 1949 the Ministry of Civil Aviation** took control to "develop Stansted Airport in Essex… for diversions from London (Heathrow)". In spite of this, in 1956, the USAF re-acquired Stansted and constructed a new high capacity runway. The base never became operational, in 1957 the USAF relinquished Stansted to the Ministry of Transport. This was highly 'fortuitous' for a post-war capital-starved 'austerity' administration!
The plan was then nurtured by the Inter-departmental Committee on the The Third London Aiport – entirely without public scrutiny. The 1963 Report of this group of Civil Servants and government appointees recommended Stansted as the third London Airport.
The Freedom of Information Act 2000 may give the opportunity to enlighten the shadier corners of this labyrinth.
* A BBC Television comedy series from the 1980's which satirized the Civil Service and ministerial government. Digby Jones, the Director of the Confederation of British Industries (CBI), recommends we view the series as a Civil service "training film".
** The first intimation that a politician was aware of the Civil Service's entrenched policy on Stansted Airport was voiced in a Parliamentary debate on the 1967 White Paper: The Third London Airport, in which Stansted was advanced as the third London airport:
"It is quite clear, looking back, that at least from 1953 onwards the assumption was consistently made that Stansted would be the third London Airport. That assumption helped to determine the routing of air traffic, including military traffic… and also helped to determine the distribution of military airfields and other installations."
Anthony Greenwood, Minister of Housing and Local Government.
❖ The LOX Report is freely available as PDF documents here.
Department for Transport (2003). White Paper: The Future of Air Transport (PDF document), London, HMSO.
Review:
Review of London Oxford Airport (PDF document), Halcrow (2003).
Note:
The former links to these documents are 'dead'. Both were available online on government websites, but the tiresome habit of the British Civil Service of 'burying' information seems to have endured into the age of the internet. The former link to Review of London Oxford Airport (PDF document), Halcrow (2003), if followed beyond the re-direct page, yields a looped link—misleading re-titled as The Future of Air Transport - White Paper and the Civil Aviation Bill. Thus the supposedly archived documents are effectively hidden: hence we provide them through the above links to our archive copies of the originals. [Unsuprisingly] all references to LOX have disappeared from .gov.uk sites.