Heathrow should be 'retired,' says town planning charity

Heathrow should be 'retired,' says town planning charity

	Published : Mon, 29 May 2006 12:50 By : Cedric Benson Print this Story

LONDON - The Town and County Planning Association has said that London's Heathrow airport should be replaced with a new facility east of the city, while the current location could be converted to 30,000 homes.

The charity's paper said that the history of Heathrow was "a series of minor planning disasters that together make up one of the country's truly great planning catastrophes." But Lord Soley, who wants a third runway at Heathrow said that this move was fraught with risks, "The more we move investment to the East - the Thames Estuary or wherever - the greater the problems for the west of London. There are 70,000 jobs at Heathrow and another 100,000 dependent on it," he told the BBC.

The charity paper also said that suddenly closing the airport made no sense and that it should be done gradually over the next century. Lord Soley said that Heathrow would be better off concentrating on matching other continental airports rather than shifting it altogether. "If we don't, then what we have to do is plan for the decline and closure of Heathrow in the next 10 to 20 years, not 40, and that would be a catastrophe for the west London region and profoundly serious for the rest of Britain," he added.

The report also said that "environmentally damaging short-haul flights" could be replaced by a high-speed rail link. A Thames Estuary site would ensure seclusion for the airport and take care of the noise factor over London as well. The association is an independent planning charity and its report said that the noise factor coupled with the fact that there was no room for expansion in Heathrow should force authorities to think about shifting.

"Passengers who fume at the long taxiing operations culminating in a take-off queue, or at long periods spent in the four holding areas at the four corners of the metropolis, might well echo Dr Johnson's famous remark about a dog walking on its hind legs; it's not that it is done well, but you are surprised to find it is done at all," argued the report authors Tony Hall and Sir Peter Hall.