| Location | 1.Essex 2.Kent 3.London |
|---|---|
| Proposer | Boris Johnson |
| Status | Aspiration |
| cost estimate | £40 - 50 billion |
There have been plans since 1943 to build a new airport for London at various locations around the Thames Estuary.[1]
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In April 1971 the government announced that a site at the Maplin Sands (Foulness) had been selected for the third London airport (after Heathrow and Gatwick), and that planning would begin immediately.[2] In due course the Maplin Development Act received royal assent in October 1973.[3] In 1973 a Special Development Order was made under the Town and Country Planning Acts granting planning permission for the project, and the Maplin Development Authority was constituted and began its work. The project would have included not just a major airport, but a deep-water harbour suitable for the container ships then coming into use, a high-speed rail link together with the M12 and M13 motorways to London, and a new town for the accommodation of the thousands of workers who would be required.
The Maplin airport project was abandoned in July 1974.[4] The project became one of the many casualties of the 1973/74 oil crisis precipitated by the Yom Kippur War, and was abandoned in favour of a cheaper plan to enlarge Stansted Airport; the requirement for a container ship harbour was to be discharged by the development of Felixstowe.
In 2002 the government identified a site at Cliffe on the Hoo Peninsula in North Kent as the leading contender among potential sites for a new airport for London.[5] The proposal was for up to four runways arranged in two east-west close parallel pairs, with a possible fifth runway on a different alignment, which might be used only at night and in particular weather conditions.[6] In December 2003 the government decided against the Cliffe proposal on the grounds that the costs of a coastal site were too high, and there was a significant risk that the airport would not be well used.[7]
Since 2008, the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has been leading scoping studies for a further airport in North Kent. Suggestions have included the development of a major International hub at Cliffe which would link in with the newly established HS1 line to Kings Cross St Pancras and Northern England.
The Cameron government is currently committed to a full Aviation Review and a scoping study was released in March 2011.
The 'Marinair' proposal was put forward in the 1990s,[8] in which an airport would be built on an offshore artificial island in the Thames estuary, north east of the Isle of Sheppey.[6] When the proposal was put forward again in the government's 2002 consultation, it was rejected on the grounds of insufficient information and prohibitive expense.[7] The Marinair plans had been developed in the years prior to 1990 by Covell Matthews Partnership, and a Thames Estuary Airport Company Ltd established to manage the project, under the direction of A. E. T Matthews, Managing Director.
However the proposal was revived in 2008 by the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, located a little further to the East towards the Shivering Sands area, north-east of Whitstable. The deputy mayor, Kit Malthouse, has supported a Thames estuary airport since before taking office.[9] In November 2008 the mayor appointed Doug Oakervee (executive chair of Crossrail) to lead the Greater London Authority's preliminary feasibility study[10] which determined in October 2009 that there is "no logical constraint" to the plan.[11]
The proposal has acquired the popular nickname of Boris Island, and is frequently referred to as such in the press.[12][13][14]
The Thames Hub is a proposal for a new approach to integrated infrastructure development in the UK that combines rail, freight logistics, aviation, energy and its transmission, flood protection and regional development in the Thames Estuary and connects this infrastructure to a trade and utilities spine that runs the length of the country.
The aviation component of the Thames Hub is for a four runway airport, built on a platform straddling the land and sea, on the Isle of Grain, capable of handling 150 million passengers per annum. It will be connected to the London by high speed rail and provide fast connections to the rest of the UK via an orbital rail route around the capital linking the Midlands and the North.
The site was selected for its proximity to London – at 55 kilometres from the centre, it can be reached in 30 minutes by high-speed rail. The proposal to build the airport on a platform, like those at Chek Lap Kok and New Doha International Airport would allow flights to take off and land over water, significantly reducing noise impacts and enabling the airport to operate 24 hours a day.
The airport will accommodate long-haul airline schedules and growing demand in the Asian market. Thus it will reassert London’s geographical advantage as the stop-off point between North America and Eurasia, which is being eroded by a combination of new long-range aircraft and the emergence of networks centred on a global hub, such as Dubai.
The Thames Hub proposal was developed by architects Foster + Partners, infrastructure consultants Halcrow and economists Volterra and launched at the Institution of Civil Engineers in London on 2nd November 2011.[15]
Many advantages have been claimed for an airport in the Thames estuary, particularly as a replacement for Heathrow:[6][9][16]
A number of disadvantages to an airport in the Thames estuary have been pointed out:[6][7]
Alternative, non-estuarial, options for providing additional airport capacity in Kent have been proposed.
One option is to expand Manston Airport. Manston, situalted in Thanet, in north east Kent, is relatively close (15 miles) to the Port of Dover and the Eurotunnel Folkestone Terminal and because of this proximity its supporters claim that it could become a hub for arrivals and departures between the UK and Europe and beyond. They also argue expansion would: a) reduce the amount of taxpayer support; b) result in less environmental costs; and c) help regenerate this relatively deprived area of Kent. However Manston is located 65 miles from Central London and the journey time from St Pancras by existing high speed Javelin trains to the nearest rail station at Ramsgate is 1 hour 16 minutes. This journey time could be reduced to under 50 mins by upgrading the old railway line that makes up part of the HS1 route, Ramsgate to Ashford, into a proper High Speed line. In addition the flight path from its single runway is directly over Ramsgate, a seaside resort of some 40,000 residents.
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