Agenda item

Airport Proposals in Medway and Kent

Minutes:

Background:

 

This report provided details of three current proposals for International Airports in Medway and Kent. The report set out the proposal by Boris Johnson, Mayor of London, for an International Airport on reclaimed land in the Thames Estuary north east of Sheppey and Whitstable, the proposal from the architect Lord Foster for an International Airport on the Isle of Grain and partly on reclaimed land in the River Thames and the mouth of the River Medway and a proposal from ex Cathay Pacific Executive and previous Dan Air Head of Airline, John Olsen, for an International Airport at Cliffe costing £15billion, with 3 runways operating 24 hours a day and handling 100 million passengers a year.

 

The report provided details of the Council’s opposition to these proposals together with information relating to the Government’s position and the Local Enterprise Partnership which had agreed to commission a study into Airport Capacity in the Greater South East area of England.

 

The Leader reported that Kent County Council (KCC) had contacted him prior to the Cabinet meeting to confirm that KCC supported Medway Council in terms of its opposition to the current airport proposals and the approach as outlined by the Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) to investigate the current collective capacity of the airports in the Greater South East and establish how they could be utilised more efficiently.

 

The Cabinet agreed to accept this matter as urgent to enable its views to be included in the report to Council on 12 January 2012.

 

Decision number:

Decision:

169/2011

That Cabinet recommended to Full Council to reaffirm its strong opposition to the current plans to construct any of the new International Airport proposals in, or close to, Medway and agrees to work with neighbouring authorities, local communities, businesses and environmental groups to oppose these proposals on the following grounds:

 

  1. It would adversely affect homes in Medway, Kent and Essex and lead to the demolition of people’s homes.
  2. An airport would cause environmental destruction to sites of special scientific interest and internationally important areas where hundreds of thousands of birds migrate to annually.
  3. As the Thames Estuary is a hub for hundreds of thousands of birds, there would be a significant risk of bird strike.  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 (source: Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB)).
  4. An airport would increase the pressure for additional major development due to the increased attractiveness of the areas of business.  This could result in vast swathes of Kent and Medway being lost to development.  At least 320 business are directly associated with Heathrow, there are hundreds more supporting the airport and Heathrow employs 72,000 people.  If the Thames Estuary airport were to replace Heathrow, many of these people would move to Kent and Medway, leading to significant house building and infrastructure requirements.  One report suggests a need for up to 83,000 additional houses.
  5. The airport reports do not properly consider the risks associated with operating an airport in close proximity to the existing import facility for liquified natural gas (LNG) at Thamesport and the munitions on board the Montgomery and the proximity of a container port and power stations.  Existing airports already have potential to increase capacity.  For example, Birmingham says it could double the passengers it carries.  Southend and Manston have additional capacity.
  6. Better use needs to be made of existing regional airports by improving connectivity.
  7. The cost of a new airport would be prohibitive (up to £70 billion).
  8. The noise, light and air pollution would be intolerable and exacerbate CO2 emissions.
  9. The airport would be fogbound and affected by high winds.
  10. Nearly 9 out of 10 international airlines that use Heathrow are against an estuary airport and over ¾ of people polled in the UK.

 

170/2011

The Cabinet agreed to set up a cross party Cabinet Airport Advisory Group with the aim of advising on the Council’s strategy for joining with others to oppose plans for International Airports in or close to Medway and Kent and that the Director of Regeneration, Community and Culture, in consultation with the Leader, be delegated authority to finalise the political balance of the Group.

 

Reasons:

 

International airports in, or close to, Medway would have devastating impacts on residents’ amenity and on the environment of Medway, Kent and Essex and should therefore be rejected.  Two of the proposals also lead to the demolition of people’s homes and in the case of Lord Foster’s proposals the removal of whole communities such as the village of Grain and surrounding settlements.

Supporting documents: