Recently the SEEGP were asked to comment on the recently released Southend Airport Expansion plans; in which, plans are to extend the Airport buildings and increase overall capacity.
Our stance is as follows:
We oppose any further expansion of Southend Airport, and we are in opposition to these proposed expansions.
While we accept and welcome the need to meet the new European Hold Baggage Security Screening Standards, we reject the need for any increase of capacity at the Airport.
London Southend Airport CEO Glyn Jones has recently commented on the announced twelve new routes, in which he hopes the current 900,000 passengers annually could increase to 5million by 2022 – which we do not believe is practical, environmentally responsible, or possible with Southend’s already struggling Transport infrastructure.
We are concerned that the expansion of Southend Airport directly threatens the quality of life for immediate residents, negates any environmental responsibility and threatens our commitment to the Paris Climate accord, as well as severely impacting on Southend’s roads and Rail Links which already struggle with capacity issues.
It is our policy that we would pursue all options to stop any and all capacity increase at the airport, ban night and weekend flights before 10am and we would seek an airport contribution to acoustic insulation grants for the many residents adversely impacted by the noise associated with the Airport.
We also cite the Official Green Party stance on wider airport expansion, which is:
“The evidence shows that airport expansion does not make climate sense.
We cannot simultaneously increase UK emissions from aviation and make our fair contribution to restricting global warming to as far below 2 degrees Celsius as possible.
The current path will not take us to the promised emissions cuts of 80% of 1990 levels by 2050, let alone a 50% cut by 2025.
Much of the so-called ‘progress’ to date is largely a side-effect of recession rather than a shift to a low-carbon economy.
The independent Committee on Climate Change has already voiced significant concerns about the slow pace of transformation.”