News / 'Cowardly' politicians under fire as debate over London airport expansion heats up

27/06/2014

“Politicians are cowards,” was a phrase delegates heard many times at yesterday’s RunwaysUK debate on London airport expansion.

In a day littered with wildly varying statistics and assertions – and in some cases plain untruths – the UK’s debate on how to add airport capacity in the south-east raged on.

Inevitably, with all types of stakeholders present, the debate veered from noise to jobs, from community needs to infrastructure costs. But what frustrated them all the most was the politicians who appeared, ...

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Liam Meehan
June 27, 2014 at 2:29 pm
There is only one real option to expand capacity for London and that option is Heathrow. As a freight forwarder why would I want to move away from my customers in the M3-M4-M40 corridor to some Godforsaken island in the middle of a river? I recently travelled through Gatwick and it poses no real alternative to Heathrow. If the M23 has an accident on it then it’s effectively game over. We had a fire alarm in the terminal and LGW staff were conspicuous by their absence and apparently any real plan. Gatwick is chaotic, shambolic and not the impression I want inbound travellers to get of Britain as a first one. Heathrow is established, efficient and capable of handling the volume, bear in mind we already operate at 99% of capacity regular basis. Give us the capacity and we’ll use it. People come to London to see the sights of the West End, the history, pomp and circumstance; not the bright lights of Redhill! They also come to trade with their customers and suppliers in the Thames Valley, not the Thames estuary. I agree with the article, the politicians need to grow a pair and go for Heathrow.

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