GACC submits its response to Commission consultation – in what has been a “woeful week” for Gatwick runway

The response from GACC to the Airports Commission consultation emphasises all the environmental damage that would be caused by a 2nd Gatwick, and estimates that when the airport was operating at full capacity there would be around 100,000 more vehicles per day on the roads.  Also around 90,000 more passengers per day on the trains – which would mean standing room only.  GACC suggests that the eventual cost of a 2nd Gatwick runway could be twice as high as previously estimated.  The cost of building a new underground station at East Croydon with a rail tunnel into central London (as indicated by the Airports Commission) plus the need to widen the M23 and M25, and to extend the M23 into London, plus the need to allow for climate change risks, could add an extra £10 billion to the £9.3 billion previously stated by the Commission.  Most of this extra cost would fall on the taxpayer. According to Brendon Sewill, chairman of GACC: ‘This has been a woeful week for Gatwick.  Virtually every County Council, Borough Council and District Council around Gatwick has voted to oppose a new runway.  So have virtually every Town and Parish Council.  So have virtually all the local Members of Parliament.  The most woeful blow for Gatwick came when easyJet, Gatwick’s biggest airline, announced that it is opposing a new Gatwick runway.’
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 The GACC response to the Airports Commission consultation 

GACC response to Airports Commission 2.2.2015


 

A woeful week for Gatwick runway

2.2.2015 (GACC – Gatwick Area Conservation Campaign)

The consultation by the Airports Commission on whether a new runway should be built at Heathrow or Gatwick ends at midnight on Tuesday 3 February.

The response from GACC (attached) emphasises all the environmental damage that would be caused, and estimates that when the airport was operating at full capacity there would be around 100,000 more vehicles a day on the roads.  Also around 90,000 more passengers a day on the trains which would mean standing room only.

GACC suggests that the eventual cost of a second Gatwick runway could be twice as high as previously estimated.  The cost of building a new underground station at East Croydon with a rail tunnel into central London (as indicated by the Airports Commission) plus the need to widen the M23 and M25, and to extend the M25 into London, plus the need to allow for climate change risks, could add an extra £10 billion to the £9.3 billion previously stated by the Commission.  But most of this extra cost would fall on the taxpayer (paragraphs 91 – 96).

According to Brendon Sewill, chairman of GACC: ‘This has been a woeful week for Gatwick.  Virtually every County Council, Borough Council and District Council around Gatwick has voted to oppose a new runway.  So have virtually every Town and Parish Council.  So have virtually all the local Members of Parliament.  The most woeful blow for Gatwick came when easyJet, Gatwick’s biggest airline, announced that it is opposing a new Gatwick runway.’

This level of opposition is a major set-back for Gatwick Airport Ltd.  If the local councils had supported a second runway that would have had a significant impact on the thinking of the Airports Commission.  Now the united opposition will make some doubt if Gatwick could ever raise the money to build the runway.

Sewill added:  ‘After this week the whole Gatwick project is in doubt.  All their brash advertising has been pricked like a balloon at a children’s party.’

List of councils and MPs opposing a second runway …..

  • Kent County Council has reversed its support for a second Gatwick runway to opposition.
  • West Sussex councillors voted 37:26 to cancel their support in principle and to oppose a second runway.
  • Surrey County Council is sticking to its policy, agreed a few years ago, to oppose a second runway unless sufficient infrastructure improvements are made first.
  • Crawley Borough Council voted 25:11 to oppose a second runway.
  • Horsham District Council voted 23:1 against a second runway.
  • Mid Sussex District Council is opposing a second runway.
  • Mole Valley District Council voted unanimously against.
  • Reigate and Banstead Borough is still making up its mind.
  • Tandridge District Council is opposing any expansion of the airport which would adversely affect their residents.
  • Tunbridge Wells Borough Council voted 39:1 against.
  • Tandridge District Council has sent in a response drawing attention to its core strategy to oppose any expansion of the airport which would adversely affect their residents.
  • Mid Sussex District Council has strongly opposed a 2nd runway
  • Wealden District Council is expected to submit a response opposing a new runway.
  • Horley Town Council and virtually all the fifty or so parish councils around Gatwick have voted No.
  • The odd one out is East Sussex County Council which voted 27:19 to support a second runway (hoping for jobs….)
  • None of the Members of Parliament around Gatwick support a second runway.

  • The following MPs have declared their opposition – Paul Beresford, Crispin Blunt, Charles Hendry, Nick Herbert, Sam Gyimah, Francis Maude, Nicholas Soames and John Stanley.
  • easyJet and British Airways oppose a second runway at Gatwick.

 

GACC response to Airports Commission 2.2.2015

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