Archived press release

Residents and FOE team up to oppose kent airfield expansion

12 January 1999

The Wiggins Group plc wants to expand Kent International Airport by taking over RAF Manston near Ramsgate from the Ministry of Defence(MOD). Manston has operated as a joint RAF/civilian airfield for over ten years, but Wiggins now wishes to use Manston to develop a cheap flight network between six European airports. Wiggins has argued that their expansion plans do not require local planning permission and are refusing to carry out an Environmental Impact Assessment, despite the significant increase in the operational activities of the proposed airport. Wiggins is scheduled to take over Manston from the MOD by Easter 1999.

Plans to convert RAF Manston are not unique. Research by Friends of the Earth has uncovered no less than four plans to turn disused RAF bases into new regional airports.A fifth proposal was scrapped after opposition from local residents.

In November, Friends of the Earth got Cynog Dafis MP to ask George Robertson, Secretary of State for Defence to list RAF bases that have closed since 1993, and to say what use is planned for them in the future. Although most are being reused for housing, industrial and commercial purposes, four proposals exist to turn bases into airports.

Peel Holdings want to build a major international airport at RAF Finningley, near Doncaster to take passengers and air cargo. A planning application is expected in 1999.

Suffolk Business Airport Ltd have submitted a planning application to turn RAF Bentwaters, near Ipswich into the Anglia International Airpark to take holiday &charter flights as well as freight. It is expected to generate 80,000 air movements including 250,000 passengers a year in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty

Stagecoach Aviation would like to use RAF Northolt in West London as a relief airport for Heathrow for planes carrying fewer than 100 passengers. The House of Commons Select Committee for Transport support this idea but the Government has turned it down. Hillingdon Council is holding a travelling exhibition to consult on development of the airfield in January.

Meanwhile, a proposal to turn RAF Alconbury, near Huntingdon into an international air freight terminal has been withdrawn following a campaign by local residents. A road/rail terminal with up to 700 000 sq metres of warehousing has been proposed instead.
Simon McRae, Transport Campaigner at Friends of the Earth said:

“Developers are exploiting the lack of Government policy on airports by buying up old RAF bases and turning them into new regional airports. Communities who for decades have had no peace for reasons of national security are now finding they are getting no peace from the peace dividend either. John Prescott must put all these plans on hold until his Airports White Paper is published later this year.”

“Local residents should not be kept in the dark and have a right to an open &transparent environmental impact assessment of such a major development in their community”

NOTE TO EDITORS:

Aviation is the fastest growing source of the gases that cause global warming. It is responsible for 5-6 per cent of man-made emissions of greenhouse gases. Global air traffic is growing at about 6% a year. The number of passengers travelling from uk airports is expected to double over the next 15-20 years. These predictions suggest that the london airports alone will need to find capacity for an extra 100 million passengers per year by 2015 -as many as currently use heathrow, gatwick, luton and stansted combined. Regional air traffic is forecast to grow by an extra 79 million passengers per year over the same period - the equivalent to five times the current passenger throughput at manchester airport.

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Published by Friends of the Earth Trust