          |
Protecting sites in England
|
Home > Our work > Conservation > Protecting wildlife sites > Protecting sites in England > Expansion of Lydd airport, Kent
Expansion of Lydd Airport, Kent
In December 2006, the owners of Lydd Airport (Romney Marsh, Kent) submitted two planning applications to extend the runway and build a new terminal building to increase capacity from its current level of under 4,000 passengers per year to 500,000. They have a stated ambition to raise that figure to 2 million passengers per year in the future. On 14 January 2008, having already objected to these plans, we presented Shepway District Council with a petition against the expansion, signed by over 10,000 people. The Council was due to take a decision on the plans in a special council meeting at the end of January 2008. Just two weeks beforehand, on the same day that we presented our petition, the Chief Executive of Shepway District Council took the decision to postpone the council meeting. We are confident that our intensive lobbying of late, and our campaigning on this issue over the last year, has played a significant part in getting the Council to think again. Maintaining pressureWe want to maintain this pressure and you can help by downloading the Lydd petition and collecting signatures on our behalf. If we can hand in another 10,000 signatures to Shepway Council before they make their decision it will be further evidence that the expansion plans should be thrown out. Your help will be essential if we are to reach this target. Much of the pressure we have been able to bring to bear has been due to our supporters who have written letters in their hundreds, as well as the 10,000 people who signed our original petition. Two of the key issues where the Council were seeking additional information were ecology and noise. Our recent submissions to the Council, as part of a second round of consultation that ended on 15 November (see RSPB second objection letter) had indicated that the airport had failed to provide sufficient information on either their birdstrike management plan, including its likely impact on the internationally protected birds that use the area or air pollution. Damaging impactsLydd Airport is located near to the Dungeness to Pett Levels Special Protection Area (SPA), which is designated for its internationally important wintering waterfowl and breeding seabird populations. It is also adjacent to Dungeness Special Area of Conservation (SAC), designated for its shingle habitat and great crested newt populations. Furthermore, the airport is very near to our nature reserve at Dungeness. Expansion of Lydd Airport is likely to have the following damaging impacts on the wildlife of Dungeness and the wider environment:
We objected strongly to the planning applications during Shepway District Council's public consultation on the planning applications, which ended in March 2007 (see RSPB objection letter to Lydd Airport Expansion). Following the Examination in Public of the Regional Spatial Strategy for the South East, in February 2007, at which we appeared, the subsequent report raises doubt about the economic benefits expansion would bring. It also points out that there is no support for the expansion of Lydd Airport in the Regional Economic Strategy nor in the Air Transport White Paper. The report's final comment on the airport is that the proposal should be properly tested through the development control process, including a full Environmental Impact Assessment. We believe that the only way this can be achieved is through a Public Inquiry. We believe that given the complexity and wide-ranging nature of the proposed expansion plans, something that the Council have now acknowledged, the final decision on the plans should be referred to a Public Inquiry. We will continue to campaign against the airport's expansion plans and, with your continued support, hope to see them rejected once and for all. Last modified: 24 April 2008 |
Nature reservesDownloads
|
Minsmere RSPB Reserve, general view of Boomacre Mere - David Tipling (rspb-images.com)
Hummingbird hawkmoth - Steve Round
Tree sparrow perched on branch in woodland - Sue Tranter (rspb-images.com, Ref: 1018091)
Bird illustrations by Mike Langman (RSPB)