RSPB launch campaign to stop new airport in Kent

Introduction

In late June this year, the Government is expected to publish seven regional consultation papers on the options to meet future air-traffic demand across England. Greatest attention will focus on South East England where the Government hopes to maintain London's role as a global aviation hub over the next 30 years. It seems likely to include an option to build a major new airport near Cliffe, north Kent. This would spell disaster for the birds and other wildlife of the Thames estuary and will be the biggest single development the RSPB has opposed since, ironically, the proposal for the 4th London airport at Maplin Sands, Essex in the early 1970s. This would have caused similar environmental damage. Plans were eventually dropped after a vigorous campaign by the RSPB and others.

The Government's position

The Government believes that to maintain London's position as a world city depends on keeping it as an aviation hub. In a speech on the 9 April 2002, the Transport Minister, John Spellar, set out the challenge the Government faces in meeting predicted demand for air travel.

Possible options

Newspaper articles in early 2002, presumably based on leaks from Government sources, floated two main options:

1. Add new runways at each of the existing London airports; or
2. Construct a new airport, with up to four runways, near Cliffe, north Kent.

It is likely that both options will feature in some form in the South East England consultation paper (SERAS). The Cliffe proposal could be much bigger than Heathrow (similar to Charles de Gaul, Paris), covering well over Heathrow's 1200 hectares. Knock-on impacts would include warehousing, new road and rail, and major housing development for the influx of employees.

The initial attraction to the Government of a brand new airport in a relatively unpopulated area is obvious when you consider the difficulties of constructing new airport infrastructure at current London airports. The Heathrow Terminal 5 public inquiry took nearly 4 years and was one of the longest in UK planning history. A new 3.5 km runway at Heathrow, capable of taking jumbo jets, could cause the loss of around 3,000 houses and would provoke a long public inquiry and even greater local public hostility. A similar story would probably be repeated at the other airports, each having their own problems.

The threat to birds and other wildlife

The wetlands of the Thames estuary comprise one of the top five areas in the UK for breeding, passage and wintering birds. They are also one of Europe's most important wildlife sites. The vast estuarine and freshwater wetlands in this part of north Kent and south Essex make it a rich haven for birds and other wildlife.

No less than four internationally important wetland sites could be under threat if the Cliffe scheme became a reality. These are the:

1. Thames Estuary and Marshes Special Protection Area and Ramsar site;
2. Medway Estuary and Marshes SPA/Ramsar site;
3. Benfleet and Southend Marshes SPA/Ramsar site;
4. The Swale SPA/Ramsar site.

Besides these statutory sites, the RSPB has 5 significant nature reserves in the area. Of these, Northward Hill and Cliffe Pools would effectively be destroyed if the airport plans went ahead. Over 200,000 waders and wildfowl winter in these extensive wetlands. The grazing marshes and wetland complexes of north Kent support a diverse population of breeding waders, such as avocet, redshank and lapwing, as well as many other scarce breeding birds such as marsh harrier, terns and Mediterranean gulls. Clearly, the greatest threat is in the Cliffe area.

The wetlands are also important for an array of other wildlife, including water voles, scarce emerald damselflies, and the recently re-discovered Maid of Kent rove beetle, as well as many nationally rare plants. In addition, the Essex Estuaries are a candidate Special Area of Conservation under the EU Habitats Directive. From a wildlife perspective, it is hard to think of anywhere worse to build an airport. Vast swathes of the wetlands around Cliffe would be destroyed or irrevocably damaged, changing the nature of north Kent forever:

· The area around Cliffe would go under the concrete needed for the airport;

· Demand for new houses, roads and railways would have, as yet unknown, knock-on impacts on the rest of north Kent and possibly south Essex;

· The tranquillity of the north Kent marshes would be shattered by the take-off and landing of aircraft, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.

Such impacts would clearly damage local people as well as wildlife. In addition, there are the long-term sustainability effects of the Government's proposals, not least the implications for climate change of a significant increase in air travel.

On top of all this, the north Kent marshes have a rich cultural heritage, featuring heavily in Dickens' novels, notably the graveyard at Cooling that provided the inspiration for the first meeting of Pip and Magwitch in Great Expectations.

The RSPB's position

The RSPB's Chief Executive, Graham Wynne, wrote to John Spellar in March 2002 and made it clear that we would oppose vigorously any proposal for an international airport at Cliffe as it threatened internationally important wildlife assets and our own reserves in north Kent.

At present, we are preparing for the Government's consultation paper, expected in June 2002. When it is published, we will have a much clearer picture of how seriously the Government is pursuing this scheme. Our aim is to ensure the Government drops any proposal for an airport at Cliffe as soon as possible. We will also oppose any other options that threaten important bird sites.

We are prepared to fight this proposal with all means available to us and will welcome the full support of others to ensure success. We have already appointed Perry Haines, to co-ordinate the "No Airport @ Cliffe Campaign".

If you would like to know more, please visit http://www.rspb.org.uk/caffairs/NAAC/index.asp or contact him directly with news, views, ideas and any expressions of support via e-mail at: NoAirportAtCliffe@rspb.org.uk or call Wildlife Enquiries on: 01767 680551

RSPB "No airport at Cliffe Campaign" - Position Statement - May 2002