At a meeting, councillors voted against allowing expansion. No small council has ever tackled a decision as big as this with such ingenuity. It launched a website on the issue to inform and mobilise residents and cleverly turned local objections into a national issue by pointing out the gap between government rhetoric on the environment and its support for bigger and busier airports. It even has had the cheek to ask ministers to consider whether the recent Stern report on climate change means they should think again about the rise in air passenger numbers.
Some of this may be dismissed as a smart form of nimbyism. Uttlesford residents, who were named this year as the most polluting in Britain in terms of carbon emissions, certainly need to put their own houses in order. But their council is doing its job, reflecting concerns and challenging government to explain a confused policy. In the end, Whitehall may overrule the council's decision by public inquiry. But local democracy will have had its say.
