A HIGH court challenge to the Stansted Home Owner Support Scheme will not affect the timetable for the plan, according to airport owner BAA.
Takeley Parish Council and local residents have lodged documents with the High Court fighting the proposals, which allow property owners who qualify and live within a defined boundary to sell their homes or commercial premises without financial penalty, if they need or want to, before the proposed second runway opens.
They claim the scheme is unlawful, breaches British compensation legislation, fails to meet the requirements of the Government white paper and is against European human rights laws.
But BAA Stansted managing director Terry Morgan said: "We're aware of the attempt by Takeley Parish Council and others to mount a legal challenge against HOSS, but we believe it is right to go ahead and launch the scheme on schedule. We want to press ahead and honour our commitment to local people under the terms and conditions of the scheme.
"One of the main messages we got back from the public consultation on HOSS was that people wanted the scheme to start as soon as possible, to remove uncertainty within the local property market. People need to know where they stand and the introduction of this voluntary scheme helps to do just that.
"The aim of this legal challenge seems to be to quash the scheme completely, but we have decided that business as usual' is the best approach, and is the right way to help and support applicants to the scheme.
"The response from residents speaks for itself. Over 100 homeowners had already applied by January 4."
The legal challenge states the compensation boundary is so narrowly drawn that it covers just 500 out of an estimated 12,000 homes affected by airport-related blight.
Takeley Parish Council chairman Trevor Allen said: "BAA's compensation scheme - based on an arbitrary and inadequate noise contour, 66 decibels, which excludes the vast majority of people who are affected by blight - might satisfy BAA and its cronies at the Department for Transport, but we'll now see if it satisfies the courts."
Campaigners claim there is clear evidence of property blight over a much wider area and that homes within just 400 yards of the proposed second runway fail to qualify for the scheme.
The expansion plans are already the subject of several High Court challenges over the validity of the Government's 2003 white paper.
