Lydd Airport expansion plans approved by Shepway District Council
CONTROVERSIAL plans to expand Lydd Airport have been given the green light by council chiefs.
Shepway District Council has spent over five years agonising over plans to expand the site's runway and build a new terminal.
Airport bosses want to increase the number of passengers flying in and out of the Marsh to 300,000 by 2014 and begin using Boeing 737s.
A special meeting was called last night to solely deal with the high-profile planning application.
Following a seven hour meeting at the Civic Centre in Folkestone, councillors finally agreed to back the scheme in the early hours of this morning.
Lobby groups both supporting and campaigning against the plans spoke at the meeting as well as local dignitaries, a governor from Greatstone Primary School and MP Michael Howard.
SDC officers had recommended the proposals be refused on environmental grounds but members decided the future benefits of employment and tourism to Romney Marsh and the south east as a whole outweighed the negatives.
Cllr Malcolm Dearden said: "I fully understand there have been concerns about how extra business at the airport will affect the local area.
"But I feel the positives are far greater than the negatives and as cabinet member for employment I feel it is my duty to support these expansion plans."
It is expected campaigners against the proposals will lodge an appeal in the coming weeks.
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by R.Butler, Greatstone
Sunday, March 21 2010, 2:53PM
“I believe the councilors were elected by us to represent our wishes over matters such as the Lydd airport expansion. From my own experience they have done just that as I am certain that the "silent Majority" do want the airport for many reasons, they are not the type to become involved in flag waving and making a fuss . Well done you Shepway councilors”
by Kwik Fitter, Folkestone
Saturday, March 06 2010, 7:31PM
“I'm really pleased about this. When I goes on holiday to Spain and Turkey and Greece, I have to go to GATWICK. If they make Lydd bigger then I can park at my mate Chris's mum and dad in Dymchurch and not have loads of hassle.”
by Silent Majority Steph, Right Under The Flight Path
Friday, March 05 2010, 11:57PM
“I am extremely happy that the plans have been approved. It is good for the currently dead area and I can very happily live with the noise which will last less than a minute a few times a day.
As far as being silent when the so called vote went round goes, I was at work and so was not able to put on my tick. I suspect that most people would have been at work (probably over half an hours polluting drive away) and therefore was not a cross section of the public. The elderly were able to put their views across and I suspect they would not be forward thinking.
A further point worth making is that in my experience, the people against the airport for environmental reasons are also the ones who were opposed to the uber green and very beautiful wind farms because they would "spoil the view". I can only assume then that these people are shallow and narrow minded with little to hold up their arguments.
My carbon footprint will decrease when the airport opens, I will not need to drive to London and the railway may even come back, meaning I would get the train more often.”
by helenhighwater, st mary's bay
Friday, March 05 2010, 9:54PM
“I too fail to understand how a new report could be cobbled together to give the council the .outcome the majority wanted. This must have been pre-meditated, so much for keeping open minds!
We must lobby the GOSE for a Public Inquiry.
Can we pick and choose the services we want to pay for with council tax and cross out those we don't?”
by Alison R Noyes, Dungeness
Friday, March 05 2010, 4:08PM
“Lydd Airport Expansion, Kent
Council Decision on 4th March 2010
Conjuring Trick
The application was passed on a false premise.
The Council was only entitled to accept the application if they could be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the proposed expansion would not damage the environment. That is the law.
I have yet to grasp the legal basis that entitled Mr Dearden to cut and paste two reports to make a new report and at the last minute introduce that new report as the report by which the Council was to be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt. Perhaps the Council would be good enough to provide me with the legal - and also moral - chapter and verse for this unusual amalgamation.
What I witnessed via live webcam has convinced me beyond reasonable doubt that the majority of the Council was, shamefully, happy to operate a political conjuring trick. In spite of due legal process, the debate was adroitly passed off as a debate between jobs and nature, which it never truly was.
Thus the people of Shepway (and elsewhere), unaware of the night¿s proceedings, woke this morning invited to believe that the ¿heroic Council ¿ facing down the cranks - has saved and created jobs for our young people¿.
However, the people are not that daft. Nor are your very own officers, or environmental experts!”