The operators of Kent’s favourite, airline LyddAir, are urging the ‘silent majority’ keen to see Lydd Airport granted its wish for a brand spanking new terminal, longer runway and lots of big and shiny new planes, to voice its fears that those plans could be rejected.
One sympathetic donor has funded a local paper ad from Lydd Airport appealing to decision makers not to forget how many jobs will be created, how local transport will improve and just how quiet those new planes will be - so quiet in fact that none of the 120,000 birds using the area will notice them.
The decision on Lydd’s plans was put off until at least April by Shepway council last month just, coincidentally, as more than 60 bird species head to the RSPB’s adjacent Dungeness reserve to breed.
It’s a good job those planes won’t be airborne, because many of those birds could just as easily head straight into the aircrafts’ engines.
Birdstrike is just one of the dangers being posed by Lydd’s expansion plans. Amongst others are the disturbance the development will cause local people who would like to know exactly which planes have suddenly become so mute.
Work at Dungeness could also be curbed which means the success of Dungeness in luring rarer bird species, and hosting unusual plant and insect life, could be reversed. And that’s not to mention the massive increase in carbon emissions so many more flights will cause.
So come on Shepway. It’s time to wave aside this nonsense from the Airport and throw out its ludicrous airport proposal. There is no silent majority – newspaper polls have proved that; there are no such things as quiet plans, no matter how modern.
This is a golden opportunity to do what your residents want and what the government is so blatantly failing to do – put the people first and do your bit to tackle climate change.
Read more about our campaign here