On Monday evening, the House of Commons voted in favour of Heathrow expansion.  For Surrey, the South East of England and the environment, this result is disappointing yet predictable and represents another broken promise to local people from this Conservative Government.

The Lib Dems and I are opposed to further airport expansion in the South East of England.  We recognise the importance of Heathrow, and indeed Gatwick, to the local economy but do not see how London and Surrey’s infrastructure or environment would cope with the noise, increased air pollution and traffic congestion that expansion would bring.

The economy of London and the South East is already overheated and these plans do nothing to spread economic opportunity across the whole of the country.

Surrey’s Conservative MPs, including Woking’s Jonathan Lord, should have voted against this proposal in Parliament in last night but Surrey’s MPs either voted for expansion or did not vote, none voted against.  They were elected first time or re-elected in 2010 on a platform of opposing a third runway, so what has changed?  People across Surrey deserve a much better standard of representation than this.

However, the battle is not yet over.  Lib Dem controlled councils, such as Kingston-upon-Thames and Richmond-upon-Thames, are campaigning against a third runway and the local Lib Dems and I are calling for Surrey County Council to take a stand and support other local authorities by campaigning against a third runway too.