A legal attempt to halt the expansion of Stansted failed yesterday at the High Court.
Stop Stansted Expansion (SSE) argued criteria used to decide options for runway sites was “infected by apparent bias” and called for a delay.
It claimed Geoff Muirhead, former chief executive of Stansted owner Manchester Airports Group, who recently resigned as a member of the government’s Airports Commission, had a conflict of interest.
The judicial review was contested by the Airports Commission and the Department for Transport.
The judge ruled that both Muirhead and the commission might have acted in a way that was not “the most wise” and their conduct could have been regarded by a fair-minded observer as “less than ideal”.
But the apparent bias accusation was not supported by the evidence, Mrs Justice Patterson said.
The court heard that MAG, the owner of Stansted since February, submitted proposals to the commission for a two-runway option at Stansted, and also a four-runway hub airport option which would make Stansted the largest airport in the world.
Muirheard stepped down as one of the five commissioners appointed by the commission after SSE warned transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin they would take legal action if he stayed.
SSE said Muirhead retired as MAG’s chief executive after 22 years with the group but was then immediately reappointed as “a highly paid ambassador to MAG, a role he continued to fulfil even after he was appointed to the Airports Commission”.
Mrs Justice Patterson observed that a “fair minded and informed observer would not have regarded the actions of Mr Muirhead in remaining as a commissioner until September 20, or those of the Commission in retaining him, as the most wise”.
But she ruled a “defensive strategy” was adopted so that, “although the conduct of both parties was less than ideal”, a “fair-minded and informed observer” would not have been satisfied there was “a real possibility of bias,” the BBC reported.
Dismissing the legal challenge, the judge ordered SSE to pay legal costs of up to £10,000.
SSE said in a statement after the ruling that the judge was critical of the commission for not being more transparent about Muirhead’s consultancy arrangements.
“Because there is so much at stake, and because the position is still not entirely satisfactory, SSE needs time to give proper consideration to the judge’s 60-page ruling and to discuss it in detail with its legal advisers before deciding whether there are aspects of the judgment that need to be taken to the Court of Appeal.”