LETTER: We need capacity fit for the future

Further to recent correspondence. Clearly additional runway proposals must be evaluated against the country’s long term needs and at some point in the not too distant future, it will be necessary to develop proposals for a third airport.
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Noise and chemical pollution from aircraft have a tangible impact on the health and wellbeing of residents, not to mention their productivity and the local infrastructure, which is already creaking at the seams. The projected hub capacity must be balanced objectively against those impacts.

The third airport would be in a coastal/estuary region (eg Manston, or Boris Island) taking account of prevailing wind, avoiding as many built up areas as possible. Growing flight volumes could then be shared between three southern sites, thereby limiting the impact on residents.

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Adding runways to existing airports may be an easy short term solution, but that is not necessarily the best long term option. We need a UK hub capacity that is fit for the future, balanced against the other factors above and the decision must not be driven by a few vested interests.

We need to plan for a third airport now and to determine the best (optimum) time for it to come on stream. Any plans for new runways can then be set in the context of a properly thought out national strategy. That is our policy.

Roger Arthur

UKIP Horsham district councillor for Chanctonbury and UKIP candidate for Horsham Parliamentary Constituency