Thames Estuary Airport Plan [PROPOSED AIRPORT]

[Galaxy]

Thames Estuary airport plans to be examined: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-16606212

Foster and Partners artist impression of the Thames Hub, a four-runway Thames estuary airport with new railway, energy and communications infrastructure.
Photograph: Foster And Partners/PA

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/ ... ub-project

 

[Aviador]

Re: Themes Estuary Airport Plan

It seems a terrible waste of resorces to build a new airport and it makes me think they should really have just given Heathrow permission to build a third runway. Comments on another forum suggest Heathrow should be closed and turned into a shopping mall. I'm no 'nimby' but billions of pounds have already been spent on Heathrow. Gatwick is in the process of spending a billion pounds on upgrading it's terminal and billions have already been spent on other airports in London and the surrounding areas.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Re: Themes Estuary Airport Plan

It's nonsensical isn't it?

Refuse to enlarge Heathrow but build a new airport at a cost of Borisillions of pounds.

But then there aren't as many votes to lose around the Thames estuary as around Heathrow.

 

[News Guru]

Re: Thames Estuary Airport Plan

[textarea]MP says ‘forget Boris Island, expand Birmingham’

The Government should forget plans for a new ‘Boris Island’ airport in the Thames Estuary and expand Birmingham Airport instead, the Post reports that Solihull MP Lorely Burt has said. Ms Burt (Lib Dem, Solihull) criticised proposals for a new airport in the Thames to cope with increased demand for air travel.

Ms Burt said Birmingham could become Britain’s new national airport, with plans to expand the runway and the proposed high speed rail line, which will cut journey times from London to Birmingham to less than 50 minutes, already in place.

Source[/textarea]

 

[News Guru]

Re: Thames Estuary Airport Plan

[textarea]Conservative MPs to fight Thames airport plans; report reveals high bird strike risk

Prime Minister David Cameron is facing a revolt by MPs from his own party over his proposal to back London Mayor Boris Johnson's plan for a new airport in the Thames Estuary. The news comes as a report has surfaced that suggests the new airport would be the most dangerous in the UK because of the risk of a plane being brought down by a bird strike.

Six backbenchers have written to the Prime Minister warning that the new airport will cause huge environmental damage, the Telegraph reports. Those opposing the scheme include Remhan Chishti, MP for Gillingham and Rainham; Tracey Crouch MP for Chatham and Aylesford; Gordon Henderson MP, for Sittingbourne & Sheppey; Adam Holloway, MP for Gravesham; Gareth Johnson, MP for Dartford and Mark Reckless MP for Rochester and Strood.

The Guardian adds that a new airport in the Thames Estuary would be the most dangerous in the UK, because of the risk of a plane being brought down by a bird strike. A report, commissioned by ministers the last time they considered the plans found the risk of an ‘aircraft loss’ after being hit by one or more birds was between one plane in 100 years and one plane in 300 years - higher than any of the other 10 major UK airports studied.

Source[/textarea]

 

[News Guru]

Re: Thames Estuary Airport Plan

[textarea]Aviation experts rubbish Thames estuary replacement for Heathrow

Replacing Heathrow with a new hub airport east of London would raise many more problems than supporters of the project suggest, an aviation seminar in London heard yesterday.

Chris Chalk, director of aviation at engineering and development consultancy Mott MacDonald, said: "People have written off Heathrow without fully comprehending its importance.

“Moving elsewhere means Heathrow must close otherwise the hub won’t move. It means losing London’s biggest employment site."

Chalk told the Westminster Energy, Environment and Transport Forum: "It would be like a heart transplant, with all the risk of that."

Medway Council director of regeneration, community and culture Robin Cooper said: “Forty thousand people with homes or livelihoods in the area [of the new airport] would be displaced.

“We build about 750 houses a year in Medway. The airport would require 170,000."

Cooper said: "There are massive environmental problems: 300,000 birds live in the Thames estuary. The chance of a bird strike would be 12 times that at any other UK airport.

"There are 1,400 tonnes of unexploded bombs in a [sunken] ship at the end of one 'runway'. One fifth of UK gas comes into a terminal by the side of the airport [site]."

He argued: "It is the most-congested place in the UK. Everyone who came through the airport would have to go through or around London. It seems illogical to put the UK’s biggest airport in the most-crowded bit of the country."

Birmingham Airport head of government and industry affairs John Morris argued there were problems with both options. He said: “A third runway at Heathrow would account for just 7% of UK aviation capacity by 2050.

"The implication is you would have to build a fourth and a fifth runway. Let’s be honest about that.”

However, Morris said: "If you built a Thames estuary airport you would need a city the size of Manchester to support it in an area that already requires five new reservoirs."

He argued: “You could take out 10% of capacity at Heathrow if Birmingham served passengers where they are [because] 3.3 million passengers a year clog roads travelling from the Midlands to Heathrow.”

Cooper quoted a Deutsche Bank report on the proposal to replace Heathrow, which concluded: “The costs are vastly underestimated. It will take a lot more public funding than has been acknowledged.”

Chalk warned: “The amount of scrutiny from competing airports as to whether any Thames estuary airport received a public subsidy would be intense.”

Source: http://www.ourairports.com/search?mode= ... rd+airport[/textarea]

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Re: Thames Estuary Airport Plan

It looks inevitable that unless the rate of air travel stagnates over the next few decades - not forecast in any survey of which I'm aware - airports outside the south east will have to play a more important part in servicing travellers to and from Britain.

 

[News Guru]

Re: Thames Estuary Airport Plan

[textarea]Consultation on Thames Estuary airport to start next month

A consultation on whether an airport should be built in Medway will start next month, according to a government website.

A Thames Estuary airport will be one of the options considered by the government in the four-month exercise.

A final decision on the idea, which would change the face of the Towns, is due to be made by March 2013. The time frame was published on the Prime Minister’s office website.

Read more: http://www.kentonline.co.uk/kentonline/ ... rport.aspx[/textarea]

 

[News Guru]

Re: Thames Estuary Airport Plan

[textarea]'Overwhelming response' to Thames Estuary airport campaign

A Kent MP is considering extending his campaign against plans for a new airport in the Thames Estuary following an "overwhelming response".

Mark Reckless, Tory MP for Rochester and Strood, has been canvassing opinion on the Hoo Peninsula, but said he might expand it to all of his constituency.

He has been sending out ballot papers, and said over 95% of residents who had responded so far opposed the plans.

Tory Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, is among the supporters of a new airport.

Full story: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-22418810[/textarea]

 

[Aviador]

Boris Island airport plan rejected

The UK governments Airport Commission has rejected plans for a new airport nicknamed 'Boris Island'. The proposed airport would have been located in the Themes Estuary. Sir Howard Davies the chairman of the Airports Commission said "the cost, economic disruption and environmental impact made the plan unviable."

 

[TheLocalYokel]

No surprise really. If the UK is not to lose more ground to the likes of AMS, FRA and CDG then, like it or not, an expanded LHR seems the only realistic solution.

Airlines don't want to go to Gatwick and neither do the premium passengers. Furthermore, the economy of the Thames Valley on the back of LHR is huge.