What price safety?

After weeks of hearing politicians and pro-T5 supporters congratulating themselves for approving the new terminal, we finally discover that the safety risks posed by the development have been largely ignored ('Air disaster risk rockets with T5' Guardian, November 29).

I find it increasingly typical, but no less deplorable, that the concerns of big business are placed before everything in this consumer-driven society.

Has the lesson of New York on September 11 not taught us anything (and I refer not to the terrorist atrocities, but to the accidental crash a few weeks later)?

Surely, by allowing more aeroplanes to fly over our homes, our schools and our businesses, we are tempting a similar fate.

Roy Vandermeer's report does, after all, state that there has not been a crash at Heathrow 'more by luck than judgement'.

So while new jobs and the boost to London's economy are to be welcomed, I feel we turn a blind eye to our own safety with considerable naivety.

And I therefore support HACAN and John Stewart in their attempt to pursue a judicial review.

Mr Byers, meanwhile, should be thoroughly ashamed of himself.

Mr P White

Edgell Road

Staines