ABOUT STOP STANSTED EXPANSION

Stop Stansted Expansion (SSE) was established in 2002 in response to the Government's consultation on expanding UK airports and, particularly, to address the threat posed by expansion plans for Stansted Airport subsequently defined in the Air Transport White Paper in December 2003.

Our objective is to contain the development of Stansted Airport within tight limits that are truly sustainable and, in this way, to protect the quality of life of residents over wide areas of Essex, Hertfordshire and Suffolk, to preserve our heritage and to protect the natural environment.

Our parent organisation, the North West Essex and East Herts Preservation Association (NWEEHPA), was founded in 1965 in response to a similar expansion threat and successfully defeated expansion proposals during the decades that followed. SSE operates as a working group of NWEEHPA. Members of SSE’s Executive Committee are appointed by the Executive Committee of NWEEHPA, in accordance with NWEEHPA’s Constitution.

OUR SUPPORT BASE

Since we were formed, our support base has grown rapidly and today we have over 6500 Members and Online supporters. These include more than 130 special interest and environmental organisations, parish and town councils and other communities threatened by airport expansion.

Meanwhile, every MP and MEP in the region is against the proposals for a second runway at Stansted, so too is the East of England Regional Assembly and all the key county and district councils in the Region.

WHAT WE DO

Our active team of core volunteers who work on grassroots and specialist issues with the Executive Committee and full time Campaign Office team run a wide-reaching programme designed to address the immediate expansion threat and to achieve change in the national policies which support expansion. Many initiatives – though not all – are the subject of press releases which appear in our Media Centre.

We have resolved to use all lawful measures necessary to achieve our objective including:
• Pursuing our vigorous campaign of publicity, lobbying and grass roots activities
• Increasing public awareness of the issues in order to gain support
• Making representations to Government departments, local authorities, the City and other decision-makers and influencers
• Identifying and implementing legal challenges
• Challenging BAA's expansion proposals via the planning system
• Conducting and commissioning inquiries and research to support the campaign
• Building partnerships with like-minded organisations based on common ground

Our activities are supported through a wide-reaching communications campaign and events programme. If you'd to do something to help, see our What You Can Do page or contact our Campaign Office if you’d like to offer to volunteer.

ACHIEVEMENTS TO DATE

We've already pushed back the timeframe for second runway plans for Stansted by four years (from 2011 to 2015), which means that they remain as distant today as when the Government gave its policy support to expansion.

On the more immediate threat of expansion on Stansted’s single runway, SSE's comprehensive response to BAA's planning application for unlimited passenger use and an increase in aircraft numbers clearly exposed the flaws in BAA's plans which were subsequently refused by the planning authority, Uttlesford District Council. This is now being examined at Public Inquiry.

Other key achievements since our formation include:

• Our Judicial Review challenge of the Air Transport White Paper in 2004/5 in conjunction with other airport communities threatened by expansion and local authorities which forced BAA to scale back its second runway plans for Stansted and Luton. (We’d already achieved a major victory in challenging the original consultation in the High Court in 2002.)

• Our City and Regulatory campaign which has highlighted the lack of a commercial case for expansion at Stansted, fought successfuly for the ending of cross-subsidisation of Stansted by Heathrow and Gatwick and called into question BAA's monopoly in the airports market with a referral by the Office of Fair Trading to the Competition Commission. This could lead to a forced sell-off of Stansted which could further inhibit expansion plans.

• Our Parliamentary lobbying which has pushed the expansion issue higher up the political agenda and brought together increasing numbers of MPs and Peers in opposition to the Government's air transport policy. Working with our allies, we forced the Government to concede defeat in its attempts to remove limits on night flight numbers at Stansted, Gatwick and Heathrow. We have also achieved an acknowledgement that aviation must pay its environmental costs through an increase in the rate of Air Passenger Duty.

• Our Shareholder campaign which led to BAA performing a U-turn on the questionable practice of giving free parking for MPs, MEPs and Peers at Stansted and its other airports.

• Keeping the expansion issue high profile within the media at national and local level, focusing not only on expansion issues as they relate to Stansted but, through our partnerships with other organisations, to the UK as a whole.

• A Parliamentary award for Best Community Campaign and an Award in the Queen's Birthday Honours of one of our leaders.

HOW WE FUND OUR ACTIVITIES

Membership subscriptions and donations form the bedrock of our income which is used to fund our many and varied campaign initiatives and Campaign Office team. These is augmented by income received from the regular programme of events undertaken in support of SSE, and from the Community Calendars and Christmas Cards which are produced and sold each year by a team of volunteers.

Full details of our financial accounts appear online.