LONDON AIRPORT DEVELOPMENT
To:
Future Development of Air Transport South East and East of England
Department for Transport London
Dear Sirs,
Concern about the prospect of a new London airport at Cliffe in Kent
is not confined to the United Kingdom.
As news of this proposal has spread abroad, conservationists worldwide
have been appalled at the complete lack of sensibility and environmental responsibility shown in even considering an option
which would devastate areas of proven national, European and international importance for wildlife. The effect on a number
of rare or threatened breeding bird species, at a time when consolidation and conservation of our dwindling natural resources
should be the watchwords, would be disastrous.
The British Government must rule out the option of
a new airport at Cliffe in its Aviation White Paper. It is frightening to observe that any modern government is seemingly
unable to learn from the lessons of the past. Air travel must not be allowed to develop unchecked. Have we learnt nothing
from the stranglehold which the motor car has over our society, roads and cities? Do we want the skies to reach a similar
state of congestion and contamination. Governments are elected to improve the quality of life for their citizens: not to sit
back and allow our environment in the widest sense to be ruined for present and succeeding generations.
Aircraft are highly pollutive; the aviation industry must pay for
the environmental damage it continues to cause and must be taxed rather than subsidised. This must be achieved internationally
and the toxic wastes from aircraft brought under the Kyoto Protocol on climate change.
That air traffic will develop, and even increase, is a fact of life.
But, in the case of London, the British Government, as is the case in other European countries, should look at increasing
the efficiency and capacity of existing airports before it proposes constructing a completely new airport from scratch. This
would not only be very expensive to construct; official figures suggest that this option would not be cost-effective.
We are confident that you will take these views into account and remove
Cliffe from the list of options at the conclusion of the consultation process.
Yours sincerely,
[Name and Address]
