Victoria's Green Matters 1st Sept 2011

Deal With IT's Secretary Victoria Nicholls writes a regular column in the East Kent Mercury:

The battle is on to stop the expansion of Lydd Airport. Shepway Council has approved plans to develop the airport but in the face of opposition from concerned residents, environmental and wildlife conservation groups the government has referred the matter to the planning inspectorate. The final decision will rest with the secretary of state for communities and local government, Eric Pickles.

Lydd Airport is tiny and situated close to Dungeness nuclear power station.  It is used by private jets and cargo planes and plans to extend it will change the area completely. Next to the dramatic buildings of the nuclear power station is situated one of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) most important sites in Europe. Expanding Lydd Airport will change the marshland atmosphere in an area of outstanding natural beauty and destroy this amazing habitat for thousands of birds, many of which rely on Dungeness as a food stop on their migratory path. There are dangers from pollution and there are security concerns for the power station.

Some residents want the airport to provide jobs for the dying town but others know that this is a short-term option. The key is in the new name for Lydd Airport – London Ashford. Passengers arriving in larger planes from other countries can be transported to Ashford International station for their train journey into the capital.

As cheap oil becomes a thing of the past and cheap airfares disappear, flights into Lydd will no longer be viable and an important habitat will have been destroyed for nothing.

Lydd Airport inquiry in 2nd week

Guardian 21st Feb 2011
"Nuclear risk from plane crashes is higher than estimated, inquiry shows A plane crash could trigger a 'significant radiological release', according to an inquiry into the expansion of Lydd airport in Kent
The risk that planes will crash into nuclear plants and release potentially lethal clouds of radioactivity is significantly higher than official estimates, according to expert evidence to a public inquiry.

Studies submitted to the inquiry to expand Lydd airport in Kent, which began last week, cast doubt on assurances from the government's Health and Safety Executive (HSE) that the dangers of accidental plane crashes are too small to worry about.

An analysis by an independent expert concludes that the method used by the HSE to calculate the likelihood of crashes is "flawed" and could underestimate the risk by 20%. And a previously secret report for the HSE accepts that a crash could trigger a "significant radiological release". read more here

http://www.kentnet.org.uk/laag

Victoria's Green Matters - 15th April

Deal With IT's Secretary Victoria Nicholls writes a regular column in the East Kent Mercury:
Airport expansion is always controversial; the expansion of Kent’s Lydd Airport is no exception and is causing major concern for environmentalists, wildlife groups and conservationists.

Lydd Airport is very close to the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) reserve at Dungeness and there is great disquiet about the impact of expansion on the local environment and its wildlife. The Special Protection Area (SPA) of Pett Levels has internationally important bird populations and the Dungeness Special Area of Conservation (SAC) has great crested newts and a rare shingle habitat. The proposed runway extension would see the loss of part of the Dungeness SAC and the destruction of part of the Dungeness Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) which is geologically important.

Dungeness is the site of the RSPB’s oldest reserve and is home to some 120,000 birds. Birds and aeroplanes sharing the same air space is a recipe for disaster both for the birds and the planes as bird strikes have caused the loss of at least 55 civil aircraft worldwide.

The need for jobs and an increase in tourism in the Lydd area are usually trotted out as justifications for expansion but are invalid when journey times to London via Ashford and the High Speed Rail Link are boasted about. Just who is going to benefit if these plans go ahead? Not the local population, it would seem. Maybe the Saudi businessman who owns Lydd Airport – proposed to be known as London Ashford Airport – means to increase his personal fortune.
 
The increased greenhouse gas emissions resulting from growth in air travel will have a negative effect on climate change and wipe out all the emissions reductions achieved through our expanded use of renewable energy.

It is difficult to imagine why anyone could possibly consider damage to such environmentally sensitive sites an acceptable way forward in this day and age.