In response to your request on views on the above subject, I object to this expansion on the following points.

Firstly the infrastructure is inadequate, I know a lot of people who will not live in this area because of the traffic problems as high-lighted only recently with the gas leak at Rayleigh. It seems that on a fairly frequent basis that there are problems on the A127 or the A13 and everything comes to a stanstill. Even without this the traffic is past saturation point and would not make it a popular choice to use this airport (and not miss flights!)

The car parking facilities at this airport are not on par with any other airport and at the end of the day passengers usually want the convenience of their own cars and do not like to use public transport. Which brings us to the use of the new proposed rail link to the airport, which could be made unsustainable or even obsolete. I know from other airports that they rely heavily on car parking, shopping areas etc to make any profits, otherwise the landing fees usually have to be so high the airport loses out to cheaper options.

It has been said about this being for the local population, which I have read in the local news that a lot of the new residents of Southend seem to live on benefits, so not the healthy economy that will provide for a sustained larger airport.

There are the environmental issues such as noise, vibration and pollution, which are becoming paramount to the government and world leaders in general. They cannot be ignored forever. The oil crisis which seems to be growing, demand outstripping supply. The aviation industry is one of the first to be affected by all this. When all this hits home is there going to be a lot of white elephants in the Southeast. There is the concern of shrinking green belt land, it seems in this area it has been built on more than most areas, so the area is already lacking in green belt. There is also concern of more demand on the water supply in the drought ridden area of the Southeast.

The economic arguments do not add up either as the Stop Stansted Expansion group have proved even with a larger airport expansion proposal such as Stansted. They have proved this to government bodies and the business work, but it seems the government are in the pocket of BAA and do not judge this on the facts. Let's hope Rochford Council are more sensible.

The idea that the expansion will help with the Olympic Games, I believe a couple of weeks event that will leave a lot of waste in its wake. This is based on speaking to business people in the London area. So generally I think it is a bad idea to expand this airport, there seems to be a glut of airport in this part of the country anyway and makes this unnecessary.