Campaign Website Worth a Million

Stop Stansted Expansion’s (SSE) website www.stopstanstedexpansion.com has notched up more than a million ‘hits’ in the last 12 months, including many from government ministers and senior civil servants who have openly acknowledged their high opinion of the site and the campaign’s professionalism during recent lobbying meetings and other related SSE activities.

The news is an encouraging boost at a critical moment for the campaign as the countdown begins to the publication of the Aviation White Paper, due just days before Christmas.

The SSE website is the first point of call for many who want the latest campaign news and information as well as guidance on practical steps to help avert the threat of a second Stansted runway which would make the ‘airport in the countryside’ bigger than Heathrow Airport is today.

Most recently, this has included a direct email link to the Prime Minister for people to leave him in no doubt of the overwhelming opposition by the community to expansion at Stansted.

There is also an opportunity on the website for people to become ‘online supporters’ of the campaign and receive breaking news and special alerts by email.  To date, over 1000 people have signed up to this option.

Said Peter Riding who created the website and who is responsible for its continued development:  “We’re in no doubt that the site has been an important weapon in our communications armoury and that it is particularly effective in enabling us to get our messages out very rapidly to a wide audience.”

Visits to the site doubled, for example, on the day following SSE’s recent heritage and environment picket in Whitehall, boosted not only by the leaflets that were distributed but also by those wanting to follow up reports that they’d seen in the media.  It all demonstrates the success which the campaign is having in communicating the messages about why expansion would be so disastrous at Stansted and in reinforcing the weight of local opposition, say the campaigners.

“We’re expecting to see intensive use of the website over coming weeks as people start to focus on the publication of the White Paper,” said Peter Riding.  “Our aim will be to give people an understanding of what it is likely contain, the implications and how we expect to respond.”