Although the inspector who held the inquiry into the siting of London’s third airport at Stansted, Essex, concluded that to place it there would be “a calamity for the neighbourhood”, the Government yesterday announced, as expected, their intention to go ahead with the Stansted site… The airport will cost £47m., use initially a total of 2,5000 acres of mainly high-class Essex agricultural land, cause the demolition of 50 houses and some farm buildings, and employ 20,0000 people.

In a White Paper issued yesterday, the Government admitted that their conclusions would be controversial and cause “deep disappointment” in some quarters. “Nevertheless”, the document went on, “it must now be clear that all the many and complex issues have been thoroughly scrutinized both within the Government and in public.”

… At a London press conference yesterday … Mr. Jay, President of the Board of Trade, was asked to look beyond Stansted to the possibility of a fourth airport for London. He replied that in the 1980s Stansted might be developed with two more runways — when the loss of land might be doubled. In view of this, he did not accept the possibility of fourth airport.

… In his report, published yesterday, on the 31-day inquiry, which began in December, 1965, the inspector, Mr. G. D. Blake … gave no firm recommendation for or against the choice of Stansted.