Staverton - well here are a few bits and pieces of news:- Cheltenham MP Martin Horwood has failed to respond to my letter of several weeks ago asking his views on the airport expansion - indeed all the evidence suggests he is still pretending the expansion is really a safety measure despite all the evidence top the contrary.
- my most recent letter to local press made it into The Citizen about Staverton - since then even BA are saying the party is over - no more cheap flights. Indeed oil prices hitting $135 a barrel yet our Government are still doing calculations predicting that by 2010, oil will have risen to $60 barrel!!! See here MPs question to Government.
- Glos airport campaigners have at last got hold of the report that consultants Mott Macdonald prepared for the Joint Airport Scrutiny Working Group (JASWG) last year. This report formed the basis of the report that Steve Jordan prepared for the two Scrutiny Committees. The report needs attention - but at first glance it seems that the airport intends to move the touchdown point (the 'threshold') of runway 27 East by about 40m. This means that aircraft will be flying lower over Bamfurlong as they approach the airport - contrary to the airport's denials (eg "In terms of height, I can categorically state that aircraft will not flyer lower than they presently do." - Common Misconceptions, June 2007, Glos Airport document). One campaigner has calculated calculate that the height reduction will be 2.5m approx. Another point is that the treatment of fuel pricing is very weak - for example the airport's acknowledgment that they see sale of fuel as cyclical shows them to be blissfully unaware of the economic realities of peak oil and the reality of ever increasing prices. The report can now be viewed and download from here:
http://tinyurl.com/67qohk
- see the mass rally at Heathrow here - great to see that even The Sun and Sunday Times have come out against a third runway.
- an aviation spy infiltrated the campaign group Plane Stupid - wonder if Staverton are using the same techniques?
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