Last week the Mayor told BBC One’s Question Time “I don’t want to build an estuary in the, er, an airport in the Thames Estuary”, a position later ‘clarified’ by City Hall which insisted the Mayor “was referring to the fact that there are no actual plans in place to build an airport” but believed “the complex and critical decisions on Britain’s aviation future require mature exploration of every possible option.”
Proposals for the airport, dubbed ‘Boris Island’ by campaigners, are opposed by local politicians, residents and environmental groups as well as airlines currently operating out of Heathrow.
The London Assembly last week announced it had had to cancel an upcoming session of the Environment Committee which was to hear from Doug Oakervee who has led a study into the airport proposal after work commitments meant Mr Oakervee would be out of the UK and unavailable to the committee “for some months to come”.
The Mayor’s comments prompted London Assembly politicians to demand the Mayor set out his position, a call today echoed by Medway Council’s Rodney Chambers.
In a letter sent to the Mayor and released to the media, Cllr Chambers says “a number of differing and conflicting views” are coming out of the Mayor’s office.
Chambers, who last week led a delegation to see deputy mayor Kit Malthouse “to demand your island airport plan is grounded”, says the infrastructure needed by the airport “would devastate the countryside here”.
Cllr Chambers says the Mayor had previously refused to meet him and other opponents of the scheme, a position he calls on Johnson to “reconsider” in light of his recent comments.
UPDATE: Cllr Chambers sets out the case against a Thames Estuary airport in our Open Platform.
