Anti Heathrow campaigners suspicious of BAA’s Crossrail cash (From Richmond and Twickenham Times)

Anti Heathrow campaigners suspicious of BAA’s Crossrail cash

2:00pm Saturday 8th November 2008 in

By Paul Teed »

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Suspicions have been raised that BAA brokered a secret deal with the Government to allow a third runway at Heathrow after the air operator handed over £230m towards the Crossrail project.

Campaign groups Hacan and No- TRAG (No Third Runway Action Group) said the donation would cast doubt over whether the Government had promised to give the green light to expansion in return for the money.

Geraldine Nicholson, chairman of NoTRAG, said questions needed to be asked about what BAA would get in return, especially with the expansion decision looming.

She said: “£230m may only be a small part of the total cost of Crossrail, which is expected to reach £16bn, but it is money that a company like BAA with huge debts can ill-afford unless it has been promised something very good in return.”

John Stewart, chairman of Hacan, added: “The very fact that we are even asking these questions shows just how low the reputation of both BAA and the Department for Transport has sunk. Both organisations have lost the confidence of people at large.”

Crossrail would provide a link across the capital, connecting Heathrow and Maidenhead in the west with the City and Canary Wharf in the east.

Construction is set to begin in 2010, and services are due to start in 2017.

BAA denied the payment was part of an expansion deal with the Government, adding that Crossrail would take thousands of cars off the roads and complement its existing Heathrow Express service.

A spokesman said: “BAA is delighted to support the Crossrail scheme with a £230m funding package announced this week.

“This demonstrates our commitment to improving public transport access to Heathrow and reducing the environmental impact of our operation.

“It is entirely unrelated to the issue of airport capacity and in fact our discussions with the Department for Transport on Crossrail predate the aviation White Paper.”

The Department for Transport is due to announce its decision

Comments(1)

NotoCrossrail says...
8:06pm Sat 8 Nov 08

Your report confirms the analysis that KHOODEELAAR! the campaign against Crossrail scam has been publishing for the past almost 5 years. That Crossrail is not the main transport priority in and around London. That the EXISTING transport infrastructure and services warrant urgent attention. That there has been NO evidence of public demand for any of it. That EVEN Gordon Brown’s own expert reported in the Eddington Study on the future of the railway ‘service’s NO evidence for Crossrail. Indeed, as Channel 4 news expressly pointed out at the beginning of October 2007...Eddington had ADVISED AGAINST Crossrail. So what is the £16 Billion plus being spent on Crossrail for? Ken Livingstone acted as the propagandist in chief for the Big Business lobby pressing the UK Govt to fork out £ Billions under covers of transport. But even Livingstone failed to find ANY mentionable support in the UK public for Crossrail..In their reports on the formal publication of the Eddington Study, ALL of ‘Fleet Street’ and the BBC carried unfounded hype for Crossrail. The only major media organisation that got the EDDINGTON REPORT right on the facts and published the substance accordingly was the US media group Forbes. They accurately reported that Eddington HAD not endorsed Crossrail. Now, around the alleged £230 contribution by BAA, ALL of Fleet Street has again been publishing untruths and hypes. The question is: do these media, as typified by the London EVENING STANDARD and the Guardian as among the most zealous spinners for Crossrail, have any senses of editorial responsibility at all? We are beginning to get sued to the BBC publishing more than one apology for the blunders that the Corporation indulges in at the expense of the licence-payers. But the newspapers who claim that they are against the greedy bakers who have brought about the current financial crisis, must show that THEY are not in hock to the lobby that wants £16 Billion of UK public money to be wasted. The same media outfits have an even bigger duty to ask why the Crossrail Bill was not allowed to be debated by the ‘Select Committees’ in BOTH Houses. Who had pulled the strings and when will the truth be ‘conceded’ by the ‘free thinking’ democracy-backing British media? After the looters who are poised to pocket £Billions under Contracts in the name of Crossrail have bolted? By©Muhammad Haque 2005 Hrs GMT London Saturday 8 November 2008

Your report confirms the analysis that KHOODEELAAR! the campaign against Crossrail scam has been publishing for the past almost 5 years. That Crossrail is not the main transport priority in and around London. That the EXISTING transport infrastructure and services warrant urgent attention. That there has been NO evidence of public demand for any of it. That EVEN Gordon Brown’s own expert [as he considered Rod Eddington to be] reported in the Eddington Study on the future of the railway ‘service’s NO evidence for Crossrail. Indeed, as Channel 4 news expressly pointed out at the beginning of October 2007...Eddington had ADVISED [Gordon Brown as the UK Finance Minister at the time of his report] AGAINST Crossrail. So what is the £16 Billion plus being spent on Crossrail for? Ken Livingstone acted as the propagandist in chief for the Big Business lobby pressing the UK Govt to fork out £ Billions under covers of transport. But even Livingstone failed to find ANY mentionable support in the UK public for Crossrail..In their reports on the formal publication of the Eddington Study, ALL of ‘Fleet Street’ and the BBC carried unfounded hype for Crossrail. The only major media organisation [and not a British one at all! ] that got the EDDINGTON REPORT right on the facts and published the substance accordingly was the US media group Forbes. They accurately reported that Eddington HAD not endorsed Crossrail. Now, around the alleged £230 contribution by BAA, ALL of Fleet Street has again been publishing untruths and hypes. The question is: do these media, as typified by the London EVENING STANDARD and the Guardian as among the most zealous spinners for Crossrail, have any senses of editorial responsibility at all? We are beginning to get sued to the BBC publishing more than one apology for the blunders that the Corporation indulges in at the expense of the licence-payers. But the newspapers who claim that they are against the greedy bakers who have brought about the current financial crisis, must show that THEY are not in hock to the lobby that wants £16 Billion of UK public money to be wasted. The same media outfits have an even bigger duty to ask why the Crossrail Bill was not allowed to be debated by the ‘Select Committees’ in BOTH Houses. Who had pulled the strings and when will the truth be ‘conceded’ by the ‘free thinking’ democracy-backing British media? After the looters who are poised to pocket £Billions under Contracts in the name of Crossrail have bolted? By©Muhammad Haque 2005 Hrs GMT London Saturday 8 November 2008 NotoCrossrail

Anti Heathrow campaigners suspicious of BAA’s Crossrail cash (From Richmond and Twickenham Times)

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