Archived press release

Gateway Opens Door to Unsustainable Development

26 August 2004

New plans to "maximise the potential" of the Thames Gateway area threaten to push the region beyond its natural limits, Friends of the Earth warned today (Thursday 26^th)[1].

Friends of the Earth said that plans to concentrate so much more employment and housing growth in the area goes far beyond catering for the area's own needs, and would increase demand for water, land and transport infrastructure and threaten local people's quality of life. Limited land is available for development free from flood risk in the Thames Gateway area. Undeveloped land could provide precious flood water storage capacity. Development would also put pressure on water resources. Increasing demand would mean that new reservoirs or desalination plants could be needed. Transport resources would also be stretched. Schemes such as the six-lane Thames Gateway road bridge are being put forward to support this growth, which would lead to deprived communities in East London suffering more traffic pollution and noise, the environmental campaign groups said.

Friends of the Earth's London Regional Campaigns Coordinator Jenny Bates said:

"This reports promises great things for the Thames Gateway area but seems to assume that more is always better, and that it can keep on growing without limits. More jobs and more housing mean greater demand for the area's land and water, and impact on the air quality because of more traffic. East London and the rest of the Thames Gateway does indeed hold great promise, but it must be developed in such a way that respects our natural resources, and puts existing local people's needs and quality of life first. "

Note

[1] www.southeast-ra.gov.uk/our_work/planning/area_studies/ ¬
thames_gateway/thames_gateway.pdf (PDF format)

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Published by Friends of the Earth Trust