The court of appeal’s ruling against a third runway at Heathrow has far wider implications (Heathrow ruling hailed as test case on Paris climate deal, 28 February), most obviously on proposed new roads. But other developments will have to undergo that same scrutiny of their impact on the target of net-zero emissions by 2050 – in particular the government’s policies on new housing. Almost every town in Britain is seeing new estates built on the periphery, where there is minimal infrastructure of public transport, schools, jobs, shops or GP surgeries, making cars the only option – and converting yet more rural land into hard surfaces.
The incoming government in 2010 ditched the priority previously given to building homes in existing built-up areas, and “minimum density” standards, that ensured optimum use of already built-up land. That priority will have to be restored if we are to comply with the 2016 Paris agreement. The government, planning authorities and the housing industry need to ensure that we can walk, cycle or use public transport to live our daily lives.
Moira Hankinson
Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire
• I hope your report has not given too much credibility to the (to put it mildly) unsound idea that London’s increase in pollution can simply be exported to Birmingham. Birmingham airport expansion would have similar environmental costs, while HS2’s vertiginous budget does not include any means of covering the 2.5km from its Birmingham Interchange station to the airport.
Robert Goundry
Leamington Spa, Warwickshire
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