Green Assembly Member Darren Johnson has called up billionaire businessman Richard Branson and Tory Mayor Boris Johnson on their schemes to maximise profits to the detriment of Londoners’ quality of life.
Sir Richard Branson has called for four new runways and a new airport to be built, a month before a critical aviation consultation closes. The billionaire tycoon, speaking to the Financial Sunday Express, said that Heathrow and Gatwick both need two new runways each – and that even if the extra runways are built at Heathrow and Gatwick, they would only be a 20-year stopgap measure.
Hours later, the Airport Commission published its environmental impact study on the Thames Estuary airport proposed by the Mayor of London (often referred to as “Boris Island”). The report concludes that the scheme would result in a large scale direct habitat loss to Special Protected Areas in the Thames Estuary and Marshes. Special Protected Areas are those which EU member states, including the EU, have a duty to protect in order to safeguard habitats of threatened bird species. The cost of providing the required habitat compensation if the airport goes ahead could be as high as £2 billion. The report, however, noted uncertainty as to whether this compensation would even be possible.
Darren Johnson (above, as pictured in the Lewisham News Shopper) responded:
“Calling for larger airports and more flights is fine if you live on a tropical island and your only concern is making bigger profits.
“The Airports Commission has confirmed what a costly environmental disaster the Mayor’s Thames Estuary Airport represents – besides which, far too many people in London already have to live with the downsides of noise and pollution. Heathrow alone is the most noise polluting airport in Europe, affecting the lives of more than three quarter of a million residents.
“Rather than building more airports and more runways we need action to reduce air traffic, not increase it. Some of the UK’s leading companies, like M&S and Vodaphone, have cut their business flights by more than a third and made much greater use of video-conferencing for example. We do not need to simply accept further airport expansion as somehow inevitable.”