Reporters: JEREMY JAMES
JEANNE LA CHARD, JOHN PITMAN JACK PIZZEY , DESMOND WILCOX HAROLD WILLIAMSON
Heads They Win, Tails You Lose
If the planners announce tomorrow that next door to you is the ideal spot for an international airport, a six-lane motorway, or an oil terminal, what can you do about it? The official answer is that there are safeguards. In an investigation into the effectiveness of these safeguards Man Alive looks at public enquiries which have found in favour of objectors, only to be overruled by the Government.
JACK PIZZEY and a Man Alive team also go to the Highlands of Scotland, where the oil boom is threatening to turn quiet lochs into factory sites-and examine the anatomy of another dispute which has just ended: a dispute over a new runway at Edinburgh's Turnhouse Airport. Objectors to the plan invoked all the safeguards and overthrew the plan at a public enquiry. But still the plan is going ahead and they believe it was a case of 'heads they win and tails you lose.'
Producer PHILIP GEDDES Editor ADAM CLAPHAM