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Aviation
Gatwick Threat
BAA Gatwick Expansion is Pie in the Sky
The BAA's announcement for considerable expansion at Gatwick is but an idea of what they would like to do if only the considerable number of opposition groups, including CPRE, would go away and stop preventing them from doing so.
CPRE is not opposed in principle to further development and the consequent increase in passenger numbers, as a considerable proportion of these will come from using the new A380 airbus which holds double the average number of passengers per flight movement, both arriving and departing.
CPRE supports in principle BAA making fuller use of the existing runway within the present airport boundary. However, the downside to increasing passengers from 30 million to 45 million within that boundary is the inevitable increase in road traffic and congestion on all access roads. Not all the additional passengers will be visitors who will use the train service to/from London, but citizens taking advantage of cheap holidays abroad. We are disappointed that there are no proposals to encourage greater use of public transport (i.e. free passage for airline ticket holders on the existing railway and coach links to London) and discourage the use of cars in their plan.
The provision of a second runway cannot commence before 2019 and then would be considered only if Heathrow was unable to prevent its pollution from increasing to an unacceptable level. If it is found that Heathrow cannot prevent this, why should the increased pollution be acceptable at Gatwick?
The "proposed" new runway will destroy the historic village of Charlwood . Located close to Crawley, it would bring 100,000 people daily nearer to all the consequent higher levels of pollution, both fumes and noise.
CPRE considers that the opposition to a second runway at Gatwick will be so great that it is unlikely to happen. The site is too cramped, the noise and other pollution footprint too great, congestion too unacceptable and the danger of a catastrophic accident too great, for common sense or the local population to permit it to happen.
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