Sadly the Staffordshire Newsletter does not circulate widely in the southernmost parts of my constituency but what happens in that part of the world has repercussive effects throughout the South Staffordshire constituency, and often far beyond.  For instance, the building of a Western Orbital Route would not just have destroyed swathes of countryside south of Codsall.  It would have spoiled areas which people who live north of the A5 enjoy.  That is why I make no apology for referring this week to a continuing cause of acute concern in the southern villages of my constituency.  This concern is raised by the attempts of its owners to turn the old Second World War airfield at Halfpenny Green near Bobbington, now called the Wolverhampton Business Airport, into something vastly different.

Those who had their plans to develop a major commercial airport at Halfpenny Green turned down by the Secretary of State in last year’s White Paper are at it again.  They are seeking to obtain, by a series of planning applications to the Local Authority, what the Secretary of State denied them.  Their latest ploy is to apply for an extension of the runway which would in itself involve disruption and road closures but would enable them to fly in passenger jets.  They know very well that the infrastructure of roads around Bobbington is utterly unsuited to a major airport and so they would then press for wider roads.  The net result would be the devastation and destruction of one of the most beautiful parts of rural England – a monumental crime of vandalism against the environment.  I shall continue to do everything I can to oppose these expansionist plans and I hope the Council will remain resolute.  I have every confidence that it will.  However, it is necessary for local people to continue to demonstrate their objection to what is threatened.  Last year, in the lead up to the White Paper, I received some 13,000 letters and the neighbouring MPs, for whose support I was exceptionally grateful, received, collectively, a similar number.  It was a massive demonstration of public opposition and took a lot of organising but I fear the exercise needs repeating.

I hope that readers of the Newsletter throughout the county will appreciate the threat to Staffordshire’s environment that the development of this airport would create and I hope that they too will make their opposition plain.

A Member of Parliament must always be vigilant in defending the interests of his constituents, and his constituency.  I have now been in the House for more than thirty-four years and in all that time no issue has aroused more anxiety, or greater opposition, than this.

And as I sign this off come news of yet another motorway proposal which will obviously have a great impact on Staffordshire’s countryside.