A DECISION over Southend Airport’s proposed runway extension will be made by councillors on January 20.
Airport managers met with anti-expansion campaigners on Monday to ease concerns over noise and pollution.
Protesters meet airport bosses but fail to resolve expansion opposition
WORRY: Stop Airport Extension Now campaigners Kiti Theobald, Derek Theobald, Kev Attridge, Denis Walker, Peter Walker and Bill Robinson. Picture by Mark Cleveland
CAMPAIGNERS met with airport bosses on Monday, but failed to resolve their opposition to the site’s expansion.
More than 400 people have expressed anger at the proposed lengthening of Southend Airport’s runway.
Opposition is being led by Stop Airport Extension Now (SAEN) – the pressure group set up with the support of Friends of the Earth.
Spokesman Denis Walker said the plans to run 120 night flights each month ‘remained a worry’.
He said: “Some people are also concerned about a possible increase in pollution and the proposed diversion of Eastwoodbury Lane.”
More than 2,200 people have logged on to the JAAP (Joint Area Action Plan) online to express their opinions, with 437 opposed to the extension to the runway.
Alistair Welch, the airport’s managing director, was pleased the leaders of SAEN had agreed to meet with him, but he dismissed some of their concerns as ‘not correct’.
He said: “Our aim is to deal with facts, and not inaccurate representations.”
The airport put forward a detailed planning application in October that addresses the benefits of the runway extension.
Mr Welch also said he hoped councillors’ decision on the application would be made ‘on the facts of the matter’, rather than ‘opinions’ expressed by opponents.
Southend Council’s planning committee will consider the matter on January 20.
