Not even the London Mayor himself sees convinced by his idea of an airport in the Thames Estuary, says Murad Qureshi
Although Doug Oakervee’s long-delayed feasibility study into the construction of a new airport in the Thames Estuary was finally published last month, there still is some question as to how seriously the Mayor of London takes the project that has been dubbed “Boris’s fantasy island”.
Challenged at the London Assembly’s Transport Committee on his Thames Estuary plan, Boris retorted that he had “no aspiration to build such an airport”. His response reinforced the view that he embraced the scheme not so much because he believes there is a realistic prospect of the Estuary airport being built, but rather because it allows him to endorse an expansion of civil aviation around London while opposing a third runway at Heathrow.
The issue was further confused by the unofficial release of a document in which Boris declared that the floating airport was the “single biggest and bravest project” his administration could promote. It is difficult to avoid the suspicion that this leak might suggest sources in the Mayor’s office who are enthusing about the prospect of a Thames Estuary airport and are no doubt keen to prevent any mayoral backsliding over his pet scheme.
Nor is Tory disarray over the issue restricted to City Hall. The leaders of Conservative-controlled Medway and Kent county councils have joined an alliance to oppose the Thames Estuary plan, while Shadow Transport Secretary Theresa Villiers has effectively come down against any further expansion of airport capacity in the south-east of England.
The economic argument for the Thames Estuary airport was in any case demolished by a study commissioned for the GLA earlier this year, which found that it was highly unlikely that business users would transfer their custom to an airport so far outside central London, particularly when many of them had located their companies to take advantage of proximity to Heathrow.
More recently Richard Gooding, the chief executive of London City Airport, also poured scorn on the idea, observing that the creation of a new airport from scratch with the necessary infrastructure would take
30 years and cost £40 billion for the airport alone – £100 billion, if you add in the cost of the infrastructure.
BAA’s recent announcement of the sale of Gatwick Airport to Global Infrastructure Partners, the owners of London City Airport, suggests that it is at Gatwick that any future expansion will take place, long before a new airport can be built in the Thames Estuary or indeed a third runway added at Heathrow.
Of course, none of this takes account of the potentially disastrous environmental impact of an airport in the Thames Estuary.
The London Assembly’s environment committee will be investigating that aspect of the issue in the new year and I will keep Tribune readers posted on developments.
Murad Qureshi is a London Member of the London Assembly
