Object
London Southend Airport and Environs Joint Area Action Plan Preferred Options
Representation ID: 14224
Received: 02/06/2009
Respondent: Mr Michael Downer
1.3 - In the absence of a definition of the world 'sustainability' this section is without meaning.
1.5 - The claim that 'the feedback received from the Options and Issues Report has been carefully considered and used to prepare the Preferred Options for Future Development in the Area' is not supported by what I read in The Report Summary of Responses to Consultation. The serious objections raised by GO East should alone have curtailed the Preferred Option.
1.6 - The Air Transport White Paper of 2002 is now out of date in terms of current economic and environmental concerns. But even it recognises there is a need to find a sustainable way forward in respect to Air Travel-Magic Carpets spring to mind. If the region's airports are such drivers for growth and expansion, why is it that in the many years of our airport's existence has it only happened once briefly in the 1960's. Accessibility and congestion surely need to be addressed PRIOR to any expansion. This is 'cart before horse' stuff. Its potential role in the 2012 Olympics for a few weeks seems a somewhat desperate example of 'straw-clutching'.
Formal Objection.
Preamble - I notice that Southend on Sea Borough Council have signed up to the Nottingham Declaration. I presume that they have studied the contents. That being the case I am puzzled that they appear to see no contradiction in signing it and persisting with their preferred options on the JAAP.
I am equally puzzled by the absence of any mention of Climate Change or Peak Oil in the JAAP. It is as if these things did not exist and it is 'Business as usual'. Surely I should not need to emphasise the contribution that any expansion in flying will make towards Greenhouse Gas Emissions and the need to reduce such gases under the Climate Change Act.
Of equal concern is the failure to confront the onset of Peak Oil. If and when the World economy ceases to slow then the demand for oil will resume. The International Energy Agency is of the opinion that the combination of ageing fields, no new major oil provinces (apart from Brazil's deep sea one) and under investment will mean a peak in oil production of below 100 million barrels/day. That is that supply will not meet world demand for much longer. Some experts put a date of 2011-2013. The argument being that new oil coming on stream from discoveries made over the preceding decade will begin dropping and will compounded by accelerating depletion of the many old fields propping up much of global production today. This will result in either a 'Plateau' or 'Descent' scenario (or even a 'Collapse') in oil production. The Price Mechanism assumption that higher oil prices should lead to more exploration and discoveries has failed. In this situation the UK would have to persuade oil producing nations to favour it with a growing quota of inputs. This is because North Sea Oil (which peaked in 1999) will continue to decline at a best-case rate of 5% year.
This leaves the Aviation industry exposed in a way that other forms of transport are not, in that they can find alternative energy sources to continue operations.
In the face of the necessity to reduce Greenhouse Gases and the approach of Peak Oil it seems criminal to pursue a JAAP based on the expansion of Southend Airport and I strongly oppose it on the basis of the evidence above.