Dead horse spotted in Thames Estuary

Stop flogging it Boris.

Just in case anyone is in any doubt – here’s our reaction to the latest attempt by Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, to breath life into the crazy idea of building an International Airport hub in the middle of the Thames Estuary.

Today (Tuesday18 January), the Mayor addressed business leaders in the Capital, telling them the business gains will be great and that planning needs to start now. He presented no new evidence and once again failed to address the considerable environmental issues.

Much of the estuary has International environmental protection, safeguarding its immense importance for native and migratory birds, rare plants and habitats. Hundreds of thousands of birds use the estuary as a major migratory route, posing a considerable threat to planes of bird strike.  

Chris Corrigan, the RSPB’s Director for South East England said: “Boris continues to pursue this pipe dream, but no amount of wishful thinking on his behalf changes the fact that the Thames Estuary is not dead space, waiting for development. It is home to an immense number of birds and other wildlife. You can not recreate the estuary nor move on the native or migratory wildlife that relies on it for food and shelter.

"I'm sure the Mayor doesn't want to go down in history as the man who decimated not just birds in the Thames, but global species too, while putting air passengers lives at risk due to bird strike. I'd urge him to drop this costly pursuit now and look to further strengthening, greening and improving London's public transport systems."

Prime Minister David Cameron, speaking in October last year, ruled out a Thames Estuary airport and the idea exhaustively investigated by the government between 2002-2005, concluding it was not a viable option. It reported that an estuary airport did not make sense economically, would not meet the requirements of the aviation industry, and presented a significantly higher risk of ‘bird strike’ than at any other major airport in the UK.

The Thames Estuary is used by 300,000 migratory birds and is home to one of Europe’s largest groups of internationally protected habitats. The massive environmental damage that building an airport in the Estuary would cause means the RSPB is firmly opposed to the move.