Thought Id start this one going because its rather dead on this board at the moment and I suppose all my usual muckers are either at the Stella tennis event watching Dim Tim (lose again) or at Henly Regatta eating cucumber sandwiches (they wish,...NOT).

Anyway please feel free to just talk to yourself blast away and let it go on any company or subject you wish. Just wish Id thought of this one before.

cheers GF.

i guess that's also one of the probs with an estuary airport ..... there are many other valid objections too

I like Stanstead and have used it more than any other airport. It depends on were you live. The M11 is great and there is the Stanstead Express right into the airport. Heathrow is good for me, but Gatwick means crossing London North to South or going half way round M25 with risks of jams making you miss your flight. Gatwick is good if you don't have your car with you.

the prob is M25+M11, though i agree there is a link from L'pool Street if i remember correctly

in many ways, i like the idea of the estuary airport, though the amount of infrastructure that would need to be inserted is not only daunting, but the time it would take, could be measured in decades ..... there are of course a number of other considerations, not least being ecological

Janner snuffs it now http://www.bbc.co.uk/news

David Cameron must exercise “strong leadership” and have a third runway atHeathrow airport built, the president of Britain’s biggest lobby group will say on Monday.
CBI president Paul Drechsler will increase pressure in the contentious debate on Heathrow’s expansion by urging the government to end “the cycle of politicisation and procrastination” that he says has plagued British infrastructure for decades.

Welcoming the government’s new national infrastructure commission, Mr Drechsler will tell theCBI’s annual conference that the government must not duck pressing infrastructure decisions, such as airport capacity.
He will say: “On airport capacity, we need strong political leadership and
action from government. Britain needs that new runway, so let’s get it built.”



Probably, means Heathrow doesn't have a cat in hells chance meaning!

Of course, unless the "Out of Europe" brigade wins and Dodgy Dave resigns or loses a vote of confidence.

What about Manston in Kent?

11000ft runway, avionics, no need to fly over London, good road/rail links.


It's got to be better than expanding Heathrow, as is almost any of the other suggestions.

Anyone been on the M25 lately?

Beat me to it Max, also a link to the channel tunnel can be laid in place to Manston.

Off out now but please feel free to carry on the discussion -):

Boris Johnson has said in the past that Manston airport is too far from London.

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/dec/19/30-per-cent-labour-supporters-jeremy-corbyn-not-leader-election

Jeremy Corbyn: 30% of Labour voters do not think he will lead party at next election – poll

100 days into his leadership, a new Opinium/Observer poll has found a majority of likely voters do not expect Corbyn to be in charge in 2020

Almost a third of Labour supporters do not think that Jeremy Corbyn will lead Labour into the next general election, according to a new Opinium/Observer poll to mark the Labour leader’s first 100 days in office.

A majority of likely voters (57%) – including 30% of Labour supporters – said they did not expect Corbyn to be in charge at the 2020 election.

Many of the survey’s findings will make grim reading for Labour MPs and supporters, three and a half months after Corbyn won an extraordinary mandate from party supporters in the leadership election to succeed Ed Miliband.

He reaches the 100th day of what has been a turbulent start to his leadership on Monday.

When asked who they believed would make the best prime minister, 41% of all questioned named Cameron, compared with just 20% who chose Corbyn. Only 54% of Labour voters thought Corbyn would be the best PM, whereas 91% of Tory voters selected Cameron.

The poll put the Conservatives on 38%, eight points ahead of Labour, which is on 30%. A month ago the gap was 7%.

The UK Independence party (Ukip), on 16%, has dropped only one point since last month, despite rumblings over the leadership of Nigel Farage.

The SNP and the Liberal Democrats are unchanged since November on 6% and 5% respectively, while the Greens have risen two percentage points to 5% in a month. An Opinium poll on 17 December 2010, at almost the same stage of Ed Miliband’s leadership, showed Labour and the Conservatives tied on 37%.

However, while the poll reflects widespread doubts over Corbyn’s electability as prime minister, it shows that the Islington North MP has characteristics that appeal to the public. Over half of voters think that he stands by his principles: 56% of respondents agreed that Jeremy Corbyn “sticks to his principles rather than just saying what people want to hear”, compared with 24% who disagreed. Only 34% of likely voters felt the statement was true of David Cameron.

Johnson's irrelevant D/C.

The day of airports around built up areas is nuts, Again links to europe via Rail and vice versa and high speed rail to and from St. Pancras and Sratford (London). Then we have the security aspect, Manston is nearer the sea so less flying overland for planes being brought down from eastern Areas.

If people bother to think about it, it's a no brainer.

Too far out of London. Planes from the US will still be going over land and from North and South Ireland.

Again that's relatively irrelevant for the other gains.

I see very few gains. The location is the main problem. The majority of potential passengers live closer to Gatwick, Heathrow or Stanstead. Only a few people in Kent live closer. That means it would not be the airport of choice for most people. Gatwick and the others have slots connecting to most places in the world. Mansion would need to attract airlines and their routes otherwise it could not compete as an interchange hub. It would do little to lessen demands on Gatwick or Heathrow as passengers would expect to be able to change onto planes to other destinations.

Everyone living west of the River Medway is closer to Gatwick or Stansted than they are to Manston. As the main bases for easyJet and Ryanair respectively, these airports offer cheap flights to a vast range of destinations across Europe.

Manston has tried flying routes to Europe when Flybe operated there. It was a failure.

Manston has many gains as illustrated, London is just to crowded it's as simple as that.

In a world where it takes two hours of passport and luggage checks just to get thru to the waiting area...whats another few minutes to the travel time?


The whole thing is politics driven, and stinks, no doubt with well filled large brown envelopes involved.

There cant be any other reasons....Heathrow cant be serviced without knocking down whole swathes of west London.

The infrastructure cant cope now, never mind when they up capacity by 30%.

Manston is just too far. It is 80 miles from London on the coast. People from London won't drive there. They will just book with the existing airports. I certainly would. It is all unrealistic as there are really only two choices and Heathrow is favourite.

I think that an estuary airport should be the big solution as there is nothing there....spending a fortune on a third runway is wrong......I would make do with 2 runways and build out there on the thames...it might take 20 years as the cost will be enormous but something fantastic would be achieved and think of all the new housing that heathrow area would have ......but knowing that the british prefer quick fixes to longterm solutions....they will go for the third runway....don't blame me if there are massive protests....we should design and build things that we can be proud of...not ashamed of....the money that is designated for the third runway would get things going out on the estuary !....

Get with it H/S this London centric stuff is so out of kilter with current (and more importantly) future Transport planning.

Climate Change is the big issue emissions have to come down. Driving 80 miles is not and option, as already said the Channel Rail link is in place from central London and Stratford and that's the way forward.

Haze,




What is the spin from tory central office on this?

Was it a training program of Maggie's?

ANOTHER top Conservative resigns over bullying scandal: Thatcher foundation chief forced to quit over links to 'Tatler Tory'
Donal Blaney has resigned as leader of Conservative Way Forward group
Comes after Mail on Sunday exposed links with controversial Mark Clarke
Piles more pressure on Lord Feldman to resign over claims about Clarke Grant Shapps already gone and other senior members may be implicated

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3367357/ANOTHER-Conservative-resigns-bullying-scandal-Thatcher-foundation-chief-forced-quit-links-Tatler-Tory.html