The leader of Medway Council has taken issue with proposals for an airport in the Thames Estuary.
Councillor Rodney Chambers said the idea to build an airport on the Isle of Grain in Kent was “the daftest in a long list of pie in the sky schemes that have been put forward”.
Chambers was referring to Lord Norman Fosters’ recently announced proposals for The Thames Hub, a project which would bring together rail freight connections between the UK’s main sea ports, a 150 million passenger airport to replace Heathrow, a tidal energy barrage and a new flood protection barrier.
The council leader said: “The Isle of Grain is home to the largest Liquefied Natural Gas terminal in Europe and around a fifth of the UK’s gas supply is offloaded by container ships and stored there.
“It is plainly obvious that aircraft and huge gas containers are a potentially lethal mix. I can only assume that neither Lord Foster or Boris Johnson, who is said to be thrilled by this plan, have actually left their offices and travelled from London to the Isle of Grain to have a look.”
According to Chambers, a “huge” new airport on or near the Thames Estuary is both “unaffordable”, at a cost of up to £70 billion, and “unnecessary”.
“The government and many airline industry giants have already said they do not support such a plan,” he said.
“Boris has no power to build an airport anywhere, least of all in Kent, and we should look to using up capacity at existing airports.
“For instance, Manston in Kent already has one of the longest runways in Europe and is close to the high speed rail link to London while Birmingham is near the proposed site for a second high speed train and has already stated it wants to double capacity.”