25/10/2016 London News

The mayor has told us tonight that he'll explore the legal opthons

available to fight today's decision by the Government to build

Sadiq Khan favours expansion at Gatwick instead.

Let's get more from our transport correspondent Tom Edwards

in the village of Harmondsworth tonight, one of the places

Yes, this village is now at the centre of the fight against the

third runway. As you can sed, the posters are still up. Just to give

you an idea of what's eventtally going to happen, the perimeter of

the runway will run along this side, this line of houses here, all of

these homes will be demolished. The Mayor of London thinks the runway is

in completely the wrong place. These plans today to expand

Heathrow, when there is an alternative for jobs

and growth, is wrong for London My paramount concern

is the well-being of Londondrs. I think runway three doesn't

help Londoners' health, doesn't help those inconvenhenced

by noise, so I'll be working with them to explore

all legal options. Apologies there. Let's get lore from

Tom Edwards who has been getting reaction from the village of

Harmondsworth. Heathrow tonight, as ever,

running at full capacity. A third runway means most

of the nearby village of It's very easy to wake up at 4. 0am

and have the 4.00am frights when you think you're going to be

evicted out of your home, I think it goes a long way to tell

us, to really tell us, that They've offered sound insul`tion

and possibly buying the house, It's not the issue, of course,

we want to save the village Down the road in Cranford at this

cafe most welcomed today's news A third runway probably is necessary

for this airport because yot can see Planes all around,

so probably is a good thing. It's good for the economy,

it's good for the business, Right here is where the new runway

will be and right at the he`rt of Heathrow's case it's been

about jobs and it's While this is about global

connections, it's also Many of the top 300 UK comp`nies

have headquarters We've actually delayed for far

too many years. That delay has actually put us

behind our competitive It's freight companies like this one

that give Heathrow the advantage. It's cargo and the combinathon

with passengers that make In 2013, 1.4 million tonnes

of freight came through Heathrow, Nearly 80% of all air

freight in the UK. Gatwick deals with a fraction

of that - 100,000 tonnes. The growth that the UK needs

now that we are looking at ` global We will have trade within Etrope,

obviously, but the new emerging markets of the world need to be

connected and Heathrow NEWSREEL: Members were reminded

of the county's long tradition of resistance

to interference and oppresshon. . But history shows that politics

and runways do not mix. In fact, no full length

runway has been built As well as local opposition

at Heathrow, the extra cost for road and rail links vary

between five and ?20 billion. It includes putting the M25

into a tunnel and it's not clear The big variable on the Heathrow

side is the motorways. Their proposal envisages thd M2

being put into tunnel and they'll want to have a good look if that can

be done more cheaply Tonight, while some say a third

runway here will never happdn, others say post-Brexit it's

needed more than ever. The reaction of local residdnts and

businesses there. Turning to politics.

Well, within hours of the announcement, Zac Goldslith

the Conservative MP for Richmond, and high-profile opponent

As he said he would when he was elected back in 2010 if a third

Our political correspondent Karl Mercer has been speaking to him

Goldsmith, Zac, Conservativd Party candidate 29,000...

Zac Goldsmith six years ago winning his Richmond

seat for the Tories, having promised to quit

if a Conservative Government ever gave the go-ahead

I said at the beginning that I would always put

the constituency first, that was a promise I made

Today, as you know, I have to honour my promise.

And so I've resigned as your member of parliament and I'll be

standing in the by-election as an independent candidate.

But this election must be a referendum on Heathrow expansion.

It is our chance to send a lessage to Government and to Heathrow

via the ballot box so I'm asking you to give me the mandate H need

It appears to have been carefully choreographed.

I don't know that, that's a party issue.

He may be running as an inddpendent candidate in the coming by-dlection

but the Conservatives have confirmed they won't put up

Quite simply, the numbers whll be against them and feeling

in the local party is very pro their now former MP and very

Zac is one of the few principled and honest MPs in

We love him for that, we support him entirely.

Will you support him as an independent?

A lot of people are upset about it, he's fought well and hard

for the constituents in Richmond and I think they'll be very upset

With no Tory candidate standing it could now be a straight racd

with the Lib Dems who used to hold this seat.

The Liberal Democrats have been completely consistent on thhs over

many decades and we will continue to fight Heathrow expansion

The by-election is expected to take place in early December.

Let's talk about some of thd political ramifications of this Our

political editor joins me. How awkward is this by-election for the

Government? Well, it is awkward and the Liberal Democrats will certainly

fancy their chances. But medium to long-term I am not sure how much

damage it's going to do. Thd Conservatives, the Government,

Theresa May, always had to factor this in, they always knew Z`c

Goldsmith was going to do this. They're not standing their own

candidate, they take the vidw let's get this out of the way and move on.

You could argue they will think if this is the best it gets, Z`c

Goldsmith leading the opposhtion, they might be happy long-term,

contrast that with Justine Greening, Boris Johnson, if their scope for

protest is curtailed, they're not going to be able to whip up

opposition long-term and it's clear from Boris Johnson, in parthcular,

he has no intention of resigning and giving up his rather big current

job. It will cause an immense

amount of disruption. There are colossal problems

still to be solved. And then you have a future

in which London will be flown over We know still a lot of hurdles to

overcome. Dare I ask, how mtch turbulence can we expect? A major

planning application to be drawn up, a long way to go. We will sde legal

action by four local authorhties, including Theresa May's own one and

protest against, direct acthon, splits within parties as well as

between those parties. You lay see politicians lying in front of

bulldozers, although not perhaps the Foreign Secretary now. Some people

still think they can not sed how this is going to happen. On the

other hand, you need to remdmber the last time it didn't happen or Labour

failed, it wasn't because of legal action that halted things, ht was

the political weakness of the Labour Government at the time. Verx

different now some people s`y. Theresa May in a strong poshtion, a

fair wind, you could argue the auspices have never been as good as

they are new to give this a go. Thank you very much.

That's it from the London tdam this evening. I will hand you ovdr to

Stav for a look at the weather. Thank you very much.

Conditions improved through the afternoon with sunshine devdloping

but it means into this evenhng and overnight we are going to sde some

moisture-laden air moving into the cooler air. It's a perfect recipe

for dense fog to develop by the end of the night. Certainly tomorrow

morning first thing there whll be a lot of fog around and grey `nd mist

in places but through the d`y conditions are expected to brighten.

Give yourself extra time to head out tomorrow morning. Some of that fog

will be quite dense. Take c`re on the roads. A big improvement through

the afternoon. Good spells of sunshine developing. The odd bit of

patchy cloud. Temperatures `re milder than of late. We hold on to

the high pressure which will be dominating throughout the wdek and

into the weekend bringing mtch more of the same, so largely find,

settled conditions. Again for Thursday we could have fog to begin

with. That should clear and lift. In the sunshine we should see

temperatures reaching around 16 To recap throughout the rest of this

week, it's set to be fine and settled and on the mild sidd. Nick

now has all the national settled and on the mild side. Nick

now has all the national weather. Hello. Autumn is the season of

change, most noticeably with those autumn colours on display today in

Buckinghamshire, as photographed by one of our weather watchers. Always

helps when there is blue sky above. Our weather is always changing

regardless of the season. One of those changes is taking place, we

are losing last week's Easterly winds and now a westerly wind. That

means it's turning milder by day and night but it does mean the return of

Atlantic weather fronts, especially to north-western parts of the UK.

The reason, high pressure in Germany and low pressure Iceland. Here is

the first of those weather fronts for Scotland and Northern Ireland

through the