Luton Airport expansion to be challenged through judicial review

8th May, 2025

Campaign group LADACAN has launched a legal challenge against the Government’s decision to allow the expansion of London Luton Airport, arguing that consent for the proposed development was granted unlawfully. 

In a letter to Heidi Alexander, Secretary of State for Transport, signalling the start of the  Judicial Review process, LADACAN argues that the recommendation of the National  Planning Inspectors to refuse development permission was ignored, and that the plans for the expansion failed to include adequate environmental assessments. 

LADACAN is currently crowdfunding its legal case via CrowdJustice.

Andrew Lambourne, the chair of LADACAN explains the decision to challenge expansion plans in court:

Luton Airport’s capacity expansion since 2012 has been both relentless and – in the view of those affected by its noise and surface transport impacts – completely out of proportion to its location. The Airport is poorly served by road, and flight paths cannot avoid rural towns and villages across North Hertfordshire and into the Chilterns AONB.

As the only major UK airport wholly owned by its local planning authority (Luton Borough Council), residents have long highlighted the clear conflict of interest between the revenue it generates for the Council, and its environmental impacts over which the Council historically has had jurisdiction.

In December 2013, Councillors voted to permit capacity expansion from 9 to 18 million passengers per annum (mppa) over a 15-year period expected to take until 2028, during which time communities were assured of noise mitigation through fleet modernisation.

Yet immediately after that agreement, the Council’s airport-owning subsidiary (Luton Rising) set up an incentivisation scheme to reward growth airlines with fee rebates. Instead of taking 15 years, 18mppa was reached in 2019 ahead of fleet modernisation, with Luton becoming the only major UK airport to breach its statutory noise contour limits – not once, but for three years in a row.

The controversial granting of a Development Consent Order to achieve 32mppa by 2043 will, in the view of the Planning Inspectors and residents all over the area, significantly harm local quality of life. A 70% increase in night flights – already one of the most hated impacts – will be part of more than 70,000 additional flights a year. Some 40,000 additional passengers a day will be crammed onto the already congested M1 and local roads.

Expansion plans would bulldoze Wigmore Valley Park, a County Wildlife site, to make way for more car-parking and a second Terminal. The Park is popular with dog-walkers and young families, and provides a green buffer between residential homes and the Airport’s noise and air pollution. 

Local people feel betrayed by the Council, which, by providing half a billion pounds in loans to Luton Rising is seen as putting all its economic eggs into the basket of an unsustainable industry at a time of worsening climate crisis.

Everyone can see the worsening effects of climate change, and it’s obvious that storms, floods and wildfires lead to huge costs. These costs damage the UK economy,  so the government should be taxing carbon-intensive activities such as frequent flying,  rather than encouraging it. Sustainability, climate costs and quality of life must be  properly weighed when assessing development proposals.”

LADACAN is currently crowdfunding its legal case via CrowdJustice.