Friends of Lydd Airport Group (F.L.A.G.) remain confident planning applications to expand the airport will be approved despite district planners recommending refusal.
In a supplementary report posted on Shepway District Council’s website on Friday 19, planners cited environmental concerns and worries over side effects such as noise as reasons to refuse the planning applications.
Tim Crompton, of F.L.A.G., the most high profile group supporting the expansion, told FUTS the planners ‘recommended refusal on fairly weak grounds. All of these points had been looked into at the last public enquiry and discounted as being outweighed by the benefits that redevelopment would give.’
When asked why 80% of letters received by the council on this application were against the proposals, Mr Crompton conceded this was probably true, but added ‘They [objectors] had a campaign to send as many as they could. All objectors they tend to more active than those in favour.
‘In my opinion, and I do meet a great deal of local people, this would be the opposite of the true feeling in Lydd where I would say that about 75% to 80% of people are in favour of the airport redeveloping.’
Lydd Airport Action Group, in opposition to the plans, has templates and contact details on their website for this. However, the objectors may have scored an own goal with the supplementary report noting at least several hundred letters were duplicates. One source told FUTS that multiple repeats of the same letter might lessen their importance during consideration.
Writing about the environmental impact, Mr Crompton put economic concerns over environmental. ‘I do not agree that the environment is more important than people. The Marsh was drained for people to live and work on not for plants, lichen, and birds.
‘I believe that the officer’s report is also flawed in that the birds live happily with the airport at the moment with 21,000 movements last year. An extra 7 or 8 a day will not have a dramatic difference.
‘If councillors weigh up all the evidence put forward by the airport in mitigation of the environmental impact, and that is a tremendous amount, and think carefully about the economic and job prospects for the Marsh and the whole of Shepway I am hopeful that a good democratic discussion in favour will follow.’
The decision to approve or reject planning applications to allow Lydd Airport to expand, taking up to 500,000 passengers per year, will take place at the Development Control Committee meeting on March 3. The meeting is expected to generate such interest members of the public are being advised not to attend. As well as being webcast, a screen in the Romney Marsh Academy Theatre will televise the meeting.
The plans have provoked strong reactions, with different groups in support emphasising the economic benefits, and groups against highlighting environmental concerns. It is no surprise that as the meeting date draws close after several years of debate and delays, the Folkestone Herald has two large full-page adverts campaigning against the applications this week.
F.L.A.G. - http://www.f-l-a-g.co.uk/
L.A.A.G. - http://www.kentnet.org.uk/laag/index.htm
Shepway supplementary report - http://www.shepway.gov.uk/content/view/200913/1922/
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