Our Saving Special Places blog is nearly five years old and we’ve covered many stories from across the UK and around the world – two stories have popped up throughout that time (nature conservation is, after all, a long game). Our campaigns to safeguard the Thames Estuary from proposals to build a four-runway airport and to protect the fragile environment of Dungeness from proposals to extend the single runway at Lydd airport.
Both featured in early posts back in the autumn of 2009; the Thames, here and Dungeness here.
But both have far longer histories – proposals for an airport in the Thames go back to the early years after the Second World War and have popped up (and been rejected) every few years since – you can find a time line on these pages by clicking on the relevant tab.
The search for a location for London’s third airport in the 60s and early 70s settled on Maplin Sands off the Essex coast at Foulness – our ability to marshal arguments about why this was a bad idea were hampered by a lack of data prompting the establishment of an organised survey of the birds of our estuaries which continues to this day as the Wetland Bird Survey (WeBs) run by the British Trust for Ornithology on behalf of a partnership including the RSPB. A small army of volunteers have produced a wealth of data that is still being used to inform our understanding of the impacts of proposals such as ‘Boris Island’ – today with the news that the Airports Commission has rejected a Thames Estuary airport we should salute our WeBs counters and the contribution they have made.
Our Conservation Director, Martin Harper, posted this yesterday in the wake of the Airports Commission announcement.
Final approach to Boris Island finally heading towards departures - photo by Rolf Williams (RSPB)
In the early years of this century, proposals to build an airport at Cliffe – we launched our No Airport at Cliffe campaign and developed a long lasting relationship with local campaigners. We were able to celebrate the rejection of that idea in the 2003 Aviation White Paper.
But not for long – the birth of the proposal dubbed ‘Boris Island’ brought the whole saga to its latest (and hopefully last) stage.
The relationships forged in the No Airport at Cliffe campaign have been a vital part in this latest phase and today, as we renew our celebrations, I want to extend my thanks to the Friends of North Kent Marshes – you can follow them on twitter at @FONKM.
On Kent’s southern coast, the distinctive shingle landscape of Dungeness juts out into the Channel - a place where the RSPB has been working for over a century and home to our oldest nature reserve. We’re emerging from a long campaign to protect Dungeness and it’s wildlife from the impact of proposals to expand Lydd airport. The airport’s expansion plans have been given permission and the process is now over as our challenges to that decision have been rejected in court – though with vital and significant commitments to ensure that Dungeness and its wildlife will be protected beyond the boundaries of the airport.
Thoughts must now turn to the future – one in which the special and precious wildlife of Dungeness is at the heart of any plans for this unique place.
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Hi Andre, as you can imagine we are so pleased that the threat of an estuary airport being built over our internationally protected wildlife sites and our ancient rural communities here in the Thames estuary has once again been defeated and we would like to thank the RSPB and its members for all their support - I have reposted our 'thank you' below
x
We are delighted that the Airports Commission have ruled out the idea of a Thames estuary airport on our precious and internationally protected wildlife sites here. These proposals were defeated by the sheer weight of evidence submitted to the Airports Commission.
On behalf of Friends of the North Kent Marshes we would like to say a BIG thank you to the RSPB and its staff who have worked so hard to collate the evidence and its members for the support that they have given to our wildlife and communities here in the Thames Estuary.
We were privileged to fight alongside you all during the No Airport at Cliffe campaign and joined with you again in your vigorous opposition to the estuary airport proposals put forward by the Mayor of London, Norman Foster and others.
Like you Martin we hope that this threat has gone for good because concreting over our most important wildlife sites and exacerbating climate change is not a sustainable way forward for any future UK government.
We are rightly proud of our natural and cultural heritage and will remain vigilant.
Gill, Joan and George
Friends of the North Kent Marshes
Conservation and Communities United