Well here we go again. The lunatics have left the asylum again. A London airport in the Thames Estuary?Reasons it should not happen.
1. Cost £80 billion pounds+. Not affordable.
2. It will require massive infrastructure to support it. M2, A2, M25 already stuffed.
3. The area is a wildlife wetland of special scientific interest.
4. Migrating Geese and other birds means the potential for bird strike is highly likely. We are not likely to have pilots with the capability of the Hudson river pilot next time.
5. We have airport capacity already available and underused outside of London.
6. Demand for flights falling.
Reasons put forward for building.
1. London needs another airport so it can encourage business.
2. It will provide jobs for a deprived area.
3. Heathrow is running at 97% capacity.
Common sense.
Would it not be sensible to designate airports in London aimed at business and non charter airlines and those outside of London for holiday, charter and budget airlines.
Spend only a fraction of this £80 billion improving links. In fact you could even subsidise fares and still be in pocket.
Thanet is more deprived than the area surrounding the proposed new airport. Any extra jobs generated at Manston would help our Island out of the hole it has been for years. Other airports would benefit hence sharing the economic benefits instead of concentrating them in one place.
The need for night flights at Manston would be less as we would not be reliant on the old and noisy freight planes which we are threatened with at present. The airport would be able to generate its revenue from quieter less anti social aircraft.
I cannot understand why Cameron is even entertaining this idea or is it just a ploy to get Boris re-elected? What worries me is politics and money are the forces here. What happened to this Green Conservatism?
Maybe I am naive but isn't the solution in the words of a meerkat "simple".
Why not build "Boris Island" at Manston, only need to compulsory purchase Ramsgate and flatten it, think of all the lovely new jobs for Margate.
ReplyDeleteOn a slightly different tack I heard the new ASDA Ramsgate was having difficulty recruiting staff, no-one was prepared to work weekends and evenings.
I would not subscribe to flattening Ramsgate I like Ramsgate. I think its a question of balance. We do need well paid jobs in Thanet not just Margate to replace those lost at Pfizer. Passenger traffic in my opinion has to be better than freight.
ReplyDeletePerhaps the 40,000 residents of Ramsgate should start supporting building on/selling off bits of Westbrook?
ReplyDeleteWho said anything about building when we already have a built airport. Does this mean that you are in favour of Boris Island?
ReplyDeleteThanet needs more economic stimulus but I agree this should not be at a social cost to residents or our open spaces. The current alternative seems to be development of freight, night flights, massive warehousing on agricultural land and thousands of lorries. Is it not better to use what we already have to the benefit of the whole of Thanet?