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Campaign launched to sink Boris Island
Council leaders and wildlife experts launched a campaign to halt
the Mayor of London's plans for an airport on the Thames
Estuary.
The public and interested groups registered their views and
signed an online petition against the proposals ahead of the
mayor's feasibility study.
The Leaders of Kent County Council and Medway Council, together
with the RSPB, all condemn the London mayor's recommendations for
the estimated £40billion floating airport, off the Kent coast.
The Leader of Medway Council Cllr Rodney Chambers said a similar
airport scheme was defeated seven years ago thanks to public
opposition and called on people to make their voices heard over the
latest "pie in the sky" scheme.
He added: "As far as we are concerned, this is a case of 'here
we go again'.
"Seven years ago, we showed that a similar scheme based for
Cliffe, which is on the Hoo Peninsula, was unworkable. We got that
stopped and we shall do the same with this.
"The Thames Estuary airport would require huge unsightly
highways to be built linking the airport to the motorway network,
turning parts of Medway and Kent into a concrete jungle.
"The airport and the infrastructure needed to serve it would
cost a ridiculous amount of money and it would devastate the
environment, which includes Sites of Special Scientific Interest
and internationally important areas to which hundreds of thousands
of birds migrate annually.
"This scheme does not add up. It cannot be allowed to progress
any further.
"We successfully fought the Cliffe scheme in 2002 and call upon
residents to log on to our campaign website and use our online
petition to help campaign against this new pie in the sky
scheme."
Paul Carter, the Leader of Kent County Council, said: "There is
a growing consensus that the estuary airport is undeliverable,
unaffordable and unnecessary.
"We hope everyone will get behind this campaign. We saw off
plans for an airport at Cliffe in 2002 and we will do it again.
"Closing Heathrow is a ridiculous suggestion. It employs
thousands of local people and is a city on its own. The idea of
moving it lock stock and barrel to an island off the Kent coast is
ludicrous.
"There is also no need for a third runway at Heathrow. What is
needed is a review of the capacity of the existing airports and
their transport links - Birmingham to Heathrow, Heathrow to
Gatwick, London to Stansted and Manston."
Chris Corrigan, RSPB Regional Director, said the RSPB was wholly
opposed to the construction of an airport anywhere in the Thames
Estuary because of the immense damage it would cause to the area's
internationally important wildlife and the wider environment.
He said: "The airport would damage or destroy huge areas of
legally protected habitat. In addition to direct environmental
destruction, a new airport would exacerbate climate change, which
remains the greatest threat to biodiversity.
"As well as massive environmental damage, there could be a
significant risk of bird-strike, as the Thames Estuary is a hub for
hundreds of thousands of migrant birds. Even with an aggressive
bird hazard management programme (such as shooting or scaring birds
away), the bird-strike hazard would be up to 12 times higher than
at any other major UK airport."
Find out more at our campaign website and help campaign against
this proposal: www.stopestuaryairport.co.uk/.
On 2 August 2010 Transport Secretary Phillip Hammond
wrote, “I can confirm that the government has no plans
to build any new airports in the region.”
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