FOSTER'S FOLLY NOT WELCOME - HOUSING AND FACILITIES, NOT AN AIRPORT

Kent Green Party is disturbed by the revival of suggestions for an Estuary Airport. Steve Dawe, main author of the Green Party’s policies for the Thames Gateway(1), comments:

“Since I have read Lord Foster’s detailed proposals for an Estuary Airport and associated developments in the Thames Gateway and nearby(2), I am concerned about serious social and environmental impacts.

“First, today’s shortage of cheap, recoverable oil now combined with high oil prices means all Airport investment is questionable(3). Given the 15-20 years it would take to create a major airport, a Thames Estuary Airport would need guarantees concerning future Thames Barrier upgrading or replacement – about £25 billion at current prices to add to the £50 billion the Airport is estimated to cost. And who, other than taxpayers, will meet the bill for the associated surface transport infrastructure?

“Presumably pilots are supposed to learn new ‘slalom’ take-off and landing techniques through the thousands of birds in the Estuary and the 175 wind turbines of the London Array(4)? And residents of the Thames Gateway, Medway and surrounding areas are supposed to tolerate immense increases in noise, declining property values, increased air pollution(5) and probably even more traffic in this congested area.

“Kent Green Party supports social housing and improved facilities, on brownfield sites only. Improving rail services and bus services and coverage are vital. But neither the Thames Gateway area nor the country need an Airport which is almost certainly too expensive, and certainly too polluting, to build(6).”

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FURTHER INFORMATION: Steve Dawe, Press Officer, Kent Green Party, on 01732 355185 or 07747 036192. Contact address as above. Promoted by H.Dawe and published by Kent Green Party, both at 27 Audley Avenue, Tonbridge, Kent TN9 1XF. KENT GREEN NEWS, free monthly ezine, is available for subscription at www.kentgreenparty.org Additional materials/research thanks to Alan Francis and Emily Shirley.

Notes:

1. Steve Dawe drafted a Green Party policy on the Thames Gateway for the Eastern, London and South East regions of the Green Party, which was agreed in 2004.

2. Collected as Thames Hub, by Fosters, Halcrows and Volterra: https://fosterandpartners1.box.net/shared/d8z5r9mfqgblp4md6zs9/1/143768202/1079854254/1#/shared/d8z5r9mfqgblp4md6zs9/1/143768202/1092737493/1

3. Ample research evidence indicates that we have passed the Peak of cheap, recoverable oil supplies with an increasing proportion of remaining resources being more expensive to obtain: Summaries of studies of Peak Oil include: http://www.tsl.uu.se/uhdsg/Publications/PeakOilAge.pdf & a report to the last Bush presidency: http://www.mnforsustain.org/oil_peaking_of_world_oil_production_study_hirsch.htm
and a report issued by the UK Energy Research Council: http://www.ukerc.ac.uk/support/tiki-index.php Oil prices peaked at $147 a barrel before the recession and have crept back up to about $80 a barrel now. Demand projections for India and China suggest that we would need to find 5 Saudi Arabias in the next decade just to meet likely demand for oil, which is extremely unlikely according to research and declining oil discovery in recent decades.

4. SEE: http://www.londonarray.com/ The Thames Hub document suggests that habitats will be provided to compensate for those lost to the developments it proposes. Kent Green Party does not find it credible that habitats will be provided for 230,000 birds. It is also curious to see why housing to be built in this area would be in any way attractive when under the noise and air pollution impacts of an Airport intended to be larger than Heathrow.

5. The Thames Hub report ignores air pollution and the fact that aviation emissions are the fastest growing sector of human-created greenhouse gas emissions. Similarly, the Report promotes further expansion of freight movement by sea, when shipping emissions are also increasing. Emissions from both these sectors need to cut to meet Government targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Bigger cuts will be needed to secure energy efficiency and an adequate UK contribution to the international fight to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. SEE ALSO: Rowan Moore – Crisis in the Skies worsens amid row over where to build the airports of the future The Observer, 6^th November 2011.

6. Other materials used: Thamesbank submission to Rio 20; Report of the Thames Tunnel Commission, 2011.