Lord Foster’s Thames Estuary airport plan ‘pie-in-the-sky’ too close to oil terminal and devastating to wildlife
a “daft pie-in-the-sky” scheme. Medway council say building it near existing gas
terminals was a “potentially lethal mix”. Nearby is one of the world’s largest
liquefied natural gas terminals. Medway council say the Isle of Grain was one
of the worst places anyone could build a new airport. Friends of the Earth said
building the airport would have a “devastating impact” on wildlife.
Lord Foster’s Thames Estuary airport plan ‘pie-in-the-sky’
over water
pie-in-the-sky” scheme.
outlined by architect Lord Foster for the Isle of Grain in Kent.
and have high-speed rail links.
lethal mix”.
airport, comes after a £100,000 study carried out by Lord Foster’s firm and infrastructure
consultants Halcrow.
forebears if we are to establish a modern transport and energy infrastructure
in Britain for this century and beyond,” he said.
“The aviation industry has been selling our environment down the river for far
too long”
was also built on reclaimed land.
from the north east over water.
carbon-free energy from the tide.
House of Commons the government had ruled out a major airport in the estuary.
could build a new airport.
in a long list of pie-in-the-sky schemes,” said leader Rodney Chambers.
terminals.
mix.
submerged just a few miles from the location and laden with high explosives, the
London Array wind farm is being built nearby and the airport cuts through an area
that is home to hundreds of thousands of migrating birds.”
on wildlife.
economic benefits that have been proven to be false.
too long – ministers must say ‘no’ to airport expansion and the climate devastation
it would bring.”
Thames Estuary and Marshes SPA – one of the top 5 UK sites for wintering or migrating
birds
birds
Special Protection Area, designated for its internationally important populations
of wintering birds. The site regularly supports some 33,000 wintering waterfowl,
of which avocets and ringed plovers occur in internationally important numbers.
In summer, there are important breeding populations of avocets, marsh harriers,
Mediterranean gulls and little terns. Click here to view full story…
Lord Foster reveals £50bn Thames Hub project
with new freight and energy infrastructure
estuary airport with new railway, energy and communications infrastructure. Photograph:
Foster And Partners/PA
not themselves be realised.” These famous words are attributed to Daniel Burnham,
the ebullient American architect and planner who reshaped Chicago, extended Washington
DC and championed the City Beautiful movement of the late 19th century.
been impressed. The Thames Hub, a £50bn project devised by architects Foster and
Partners, planners and builders Halcrow and Volterra, a consultancy group of British
economists, aims to revolutionise Britain’s often creaking and largely inadequate
national transport and
terminus, freight depot and port along with a new Thames Barrier sited all together
in the Thames estuary, a new four-track high-speed orbital passenger and freight
railway would run around the north of
Felixstowe, Cardiff and Southampton.
national transport “spine” would also carry power lines and communications cables,
cutting down on the need for new pylons. Built to a continental loading gauge,
the railways would connect directly with high-speed passenger and freight lines
in the rest of Europe.
and new railway lines with tens of thousands of new homes connected directly to
an ultra-modern transport network. Most new homes in Britain are currently scattered
on the fringe of old towns and across the green belt with little consideration
for transport and other infrastructure.
forebears, ” said Foster on Wednesday, “if we are to establish a modern transport
and energy infrastructure in Britain for this century and beyond.”
enthusiasm and frustration,” says Foster. “In Hong Kong, a decade ago, we were
able to build a major new international airport and all the associated infrastructure
including a new island reclaimed from the sea within four years. If Britain wants
to compete with rapidly developing global economies, it must sort out its infrastructure
and, if this is holistically planned with real political commitment it can also
be a thing of beauty and environmentally friendly.”
accused of playing Napoleon, but we have to get the debate going and show what
a difference a radical new infrastructure plan could make to Britain.”
“Britain ignores development and investment in infrastructure at its peril. Look
around the world and you see the way in which China and Latin America are investing
heavily in infrastructure. They see it as a passport to strong economic development.”
generate £150bn in financial benefits alone. It has also been planned to save
the green belt from rapacious commercial development, to generate hydroelectric
power from the tidal Thames and to beautify transport corridors around London
and along the country’s main traffic arteries.
would create thousands of skilled jobs in engineering, manufacturing and construction
alone.”
The building of the railways, sewers, National Grid, motorways and water supplies
are all examples of how Britain has made it in the past. Huge infrastructure projects
like the city of Birmingham’s water supply from the Elan Valley, completed in
the early 20th century, prove how such works can be breathtakingly beautiful as
well as discreet and highly effective. They can also be highly controversial,
politically sensitive and hugely expensive.
an architect used to moving mountains in the far east. “We’ve stuck our heads
up like coconuts in a funfair expecting them to be knocked down. But we need to
do something soon, and this plan is national, aiming to redress the imbalance
of the economies of north and south.”
in the world where fleets of modern aircraft, ships and trains power Britain’s
economy into a newly competitive age? Will we live in fine new homes connected
to brand new transport, energy and communications spines and hubs? Or will we
decide it’s business as usual in little Britain and carry on building junk
on the land that’s left and between overcrowded roads and railways? Foster and
his team have offered a big-spirited vision of Britain, but do we have eyes to
see it?
Will world’s biggest airport be built on the Thames? Lord Foster unveils plans
for £50bn site that will handle 150m passengers a year
for £50bn site that will handle 150m passengers a year
for £50bn site that will handle 150m passengers a year
than twice as busy as Heathrow
handling 300,000 arrivals and departures a day
airport plan for the area as results of a crash would be explosive