Thames Estuary Airport out

We have always said that the Thames Estuary is a disastrous place to put an airport. Well, I am delighted to learn this morning that common sense has prevailed: the Airports Commisssion has ruled out this option – I hope once and for all.  

Following a detailed review of the evidence, including some from the RSPB, the Commission concluded that a Thames Estuary airport will not be on its shortlist of potential aviation expansion sites recommended to Government.  

You can read the announcement here.

This is good news indeed. To destroy such an important area for wildlife in order to build an airport would have been an act of environmental vandalism on a massive scale. The tidal mudflats, saltmarsh and reed beds that line the estuary are some of the most import wildlife habitats in Europe, home to a rich ecosystem which includes hundreds of thousands of threatened wintering birds. This area is designated with the highest environmental protection available.

Independent consultants reporting to the Airports Commission last month confirmed that, “an airport development [in the estuary] is likely to result in large-scale adverse effects on international nature conservation designations” and that even if it were feasible, the costs of wildlife relocation alone may be £2billion. And we know that attempts to relocate the habitat for hundreds of thousands of birds would have been a nonsense on a grand scale. There is nowhere in Europe large enough to accommodate a compensation site which would have needed to be ten times bigger than anything ever attempted before.

Those of you who remember our major “No airport at Cliffe” campaign a decade or so ago will know that we have been working with the communities in South Essex and North Kent for many years to fight various proposals for airports here.  This morning they will feel relieved, delighted and I hope proud of the campaign that they have run.   They have for over a decade lived the spectre of an airport.  I hope today's announcement signals the end to that threat. No more time and money should wasted in developing proposals for this area.

While we can celebrate the fact that the Thames Estuary and the wildlife it is home to are safe for now, the battle to curb increases in carbon emissions from airportsis unfortunately  set  to continue. Climate change remains the greatest long term threat to wildlife and we believe there should be no further airports in this country until the Government can demonstrate how they can be built and operated without busting our legally binding climate targets. So this means we will continue to work alongside our NGO colleagues to highlight this issue as the debate around expansion at Heathrow or Gatwick continues.

But for today, I sincerely hope that the Commission’s announcement draws a line under any more proposals for an airport in the Thames Estuary once and for all.