LOCAL government secretary Eric Pickles has come under fire for attending a private dinner with Farnborough airport chief executive Brandon O'Reilly just days before plans to almost double its capacity were finally approved.

The dinner, at the five-star Savoy hotel in February, was hosted by the lobbying firm Bell Pottinger.

It was attended by Mr O’Reilly, who at the time was awaiting a decision by Mr Pickles’s Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) and the Department for Transport (DfT) on an application to almost double the capacity of the airport.

Bell Pottinger Public Affairs was appointed by TAG Farnborough Airport in 2008 to advise on its proposal to increase the number of flights at the airport to 50,000 a year.

The plan was rejected by Rushmoor Borough Council but referred to central government after an appeal and planning inquiry.

Opponents included Michael Gove, the education secretary, whose Surrey Heath constituency is under the Farnborough flight path.

The Savoy dinner was held on February 1 and the airport’s expansion plans were jointly approved by the DCLG and DfT on February 10.

Guidance from Mr Pickles’s own department states that planning ministers are ‘strongly advised’ to decline requests for meetings from interested parties during a planning appeal.

The not-for-profit Bureau of Investigative Journalism said Mr Pickles’s attendance at the Savoy dinner emerged in a blog posted by Peter Bingle, chairman of Bell Pottinger Public Affairs.

A spokesman for Mr Pickles said the cabinet minister attended the dinner in a ‘private’ capacity and did not speak to Mr O’Reilly or discuss the airport.

The decision on Farnborough’s expansion was taken by planning minister Bob Neill and not Mr Pickles, he added.

A spokesman for the DCLG said Mr Pickles had ‘met the requirements of the ministerial code’.

But Friends of the Earth’s planning and policy adviser, Naomi Luhde-Thompson, said: "Meeting Farnborough airport’s chief executive and pro-expansion lobbyists days before the appeal decision certainly raises questions about Mr Pickles’s neutrality."

Sarah Clayton, of the campaigning group Airport Watch, added: "Had Mr Pickles met privately with environmental campaigners a week before the application, and had it been refused nine days later, all hell would have broken loose."

James Radley, group leader of the Community Campaign Hart, was also unimpressed.

He said: "There is widespread feeling that the entire planning appeal process is opaque and that big business is able to manipulate the outcome behind the scenes.

"As one amongst many who made heartfelt representations to the (Farnborough airport) appeal I feel very disillusioned about the whole process."

A spokesman for TAG Farnborough Airport said: "We can confirm that our CEO attended this event and the airport was not discussed.”

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