Newsdesk

BE SCEPTICAL ABOUT SHEPPEY AIRPORT

29th August 2003

Government plans to consider Sheppey as an airport site should be treated with as much scepticism as plans for Cliffe(1). The Party emphasises that physical barriers to aviation expansion make suggested airport developments not credible. Steve Dawe comments:

"Airport expansion at locations like Sheppey, Cliffe or Manston require safe airspace for routes which simply do not exist, according to air traffic controllers. Also, the oil industry has warned repeatedly that global rates of oil use are rising rapidly and that new discoveries do not permit optimism about long-term oil prices or availability. Warnings of difficulties in 30 years time have become concern about oil supplies after 2010. This implies fundamental changes in aviation. At present, aviation fuel is not even taxed, unlike petrol and diesel. Since the British aviation industry alone lost 20,000 jobs April 2002-April 2003, suggestions of numerous sites of airport expansion are 'spin'. Reductions in jobs throughout the global aviation industry, with less people travelling, emphasise that global terrorism has contributed to a recession in the civil aviation industry.

If civil aviation's massive �18-19 billion a year in subsidies (2) is removed, then airport expansion would not occur and diminished journeys would reduce greenhouse gas emissions and benefit tourism in the UK." ENDS c210 words

FURTHER INFORMATION: Steve Dawe on 01233 645167/07904 382203. Contact address: 10 Hillbrow Road, Ashford, Kent TN23 4QH

Notes: 1. Andrew Clark Greenfield airport plan re-examined . The Guardian, 26th August 2003.

2. The view of the Environmental Audit Committee of the House of Commons, which corresponds closely to a Green Party report, Aviation's Economic Downside, available at www.greenparty.org.uk/reports

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20th June 2005