Dear Mr Longley,
You are quoted in today’s Echo as saying “We recognise the benefits economically for residents, but we as a group will be looking at the airport lease, which is coming up soon, and will be looking for a restricted night usage.”
Could you please explain to which lease you are referring? The main airport lease doesn’t “come up” until 2144 which can hardly be considered “soon”. While there is the provision for quinquennial reviews of the current Section 106 agreement, the last one was due in July last year and while Southend Council claimed it would be happy to be part of such a review, they insisted that Rochford Council, as the planning authority in that case, should instigate such a review. They refused. This means that the next opportunity for such a review will be 19th July 2014, which still doesn’t really count as “soon”.
I would also appreciate an explanation of what economic benefits you believe the residents of the town will receive from the expansion of the airport, given that any profits will be pocketed directly by Stobart. Having done your research, as I am sure you must have, you will know that airports in the UK are responsible for the net loss of in excess of £18bn per year from our economy.
It’s best not to mislead the electorate in the run up to the election.
Regards,
–
Denis Walker
Press Officer, Stop Airport Extension Now
http://www.saen.org.uk/
Thanks for
your e-mail – I’m sorry your dont see any economic benefits to the town or it’s residents and it seens unrealistic to try and persuade you now.
As far as the Lease is concerned I am sure you will remember that the Conservatives made it clear that as part of the expansion of the airport and the planning permission, that the current lease would be re-negotiated with changes to the number of flights etc. Indeed they made big play of the new benefits and restrictions they said they were going to get. This needs to be formerly put before Council before it can be agreed and signed.
It is this negotiation that will come to the scrutiny committee ( the LD group had already asked some weeks ago, for it to be on the next agenda) and it during that debaste we shall see whether further restrictions can be added to the lease to improve things for the residents particularly night closure.
Cllr Graham Longley
Dear Mr Longley,
Thank you for your reply.
I would love to be persuaded that there will be economic benefits for the town from the expansion of the airport, but no-one has yet put any forward. I know that there has been talk of around 7,000 jobs, but the evidence from other airports is that job claims are invariably wildly inflated. To date, all the evidence points to the same thing happening here.
It should be pointed out that any jobs created on the “Saxon Business Park” cannot in good faith be counted towards the total as it would be entirely feasible to build the business park without expanding the airport. Also, as many of the jobs expected to be “created” at the business park would actually be those transferred from the Eldon Way industrial estate in Hockley, it would be disingenuous to claim that they are new jobs.
It would appear that what you are referring to is the Section 106 agreement attached to the planning application and not the lease. That document has not yet come into effect and to date, we have only seen a draft prepared by the airport themselves which is, unsurprisingly, weighted overwhelmingly in their favour. Cllr Holdcroft has been on record to say how that document has been carefully negotiated, but it currently provides no adequate protection for residents under the flight path.
Given the restrictions in force at other airports (such as Southampton and London City), it would not be unreasonable to expect the night flights to be capped at a monthly total of either ten or none at all and all the exceptions made for Quota Count exempt planes to be removed. It is entirely understandable that emergency aircraft movements may in exceptional circumstances be required, for example in the delivery of human organs for transplant. As a transplant recipient myself, I would obviously support such aircraft movements.
However, freight movements would not fall into this category and given the draft S106 agreement’s current ban of passenger night flights, this is what the majority of night flights would be. It is abundantly clear from recent comments to the press from Stobart Chief Executive Andrew Tinkler that the company’s purchase of Southend Airport was motivated by their “multimodal” freight strategy and however much Alastair Welch protests that it wasn’t, the S106 agreement again backs the assertion up because 10% of all flights are allowed to be freight.
I take it that the Scrutiny Committee meeting will be open to the public. Could you tell me when it is due to take place please?
Regards,
–
Denis Walker
Press Officer, Stop Airport Extension Now
http://www.saen.org.uk/
Mr Walker
I don’t wish to sound officious but I am aware of the difference between a Lease and 106 planning arrangements.
I confirm that the lease is still in the process of final negotiation and a report of the details and conditions will come to scrutiny and council before final approval. In the meantime we have the opportunity of putting forward alternative and additional suggestions for discussion.
The Borough’s Forward Plan shows this on page 6 of the plan and enables us as councillors to raise the matter and make alternative suggestions. Should you not be happy with my response feel free to check with officers of the council. I might add, as before, that it would seem unlikely that the administration would accept any more restrictions but we can try so we will be putting forward other ideas.
All scrutiny meetings are open to the public although I had better add that if a matter (eg negoiation details) are considered to be confidential then they will be moved into private.
Cllr Graham Longley
Dear Mr Longley,
Could you confirm to which lease you are referring then? Surely not the main airport lease, which runs until 2144? From reading the draft S106 agreement, it appeared that it was that document in which the so-called restrictions on night flights were being set.
As I asked in my previous email, could you confirm the date of the scrutiny meeting please?
Regards,
–
Denis Walker
Press Officer, Stop Airport Extension Now
http://www.saen.org.uk/
Mr Walker
The lease is the lease!
Currently the date is not yet fixed – as far a I am aware, in that, the lease is not yet ready.
Cllr Graham Longley
Dear Mr Longley,
Thank you for your reply. I appreciate that you are taking the time to answer my questions. Councillors of the administration don’t answer as promptly, if at all.
My understanding is that there are several separate leases for land at the airport, so if you could shed any light on which one(s) are being worked on, that would be most helpful. If you are aware of any documents on the Council website that refer to these, I would appreciate being directed to them.
The leases I am aware of are:
* Main Airport lease
* 10 acre field lease
* 5.7 acre field lease
* RESA lease
Regards,
–
Denis Walker
Press Officer, Stop Airport Extension Now
http://www.saen.org.uk/
Mr Walker
You are right to say there are a number of leases to specific plots etc and on any one of those, if any conditions were changed then it could asffect the overall outcome. The officers have just or are just appointing consutants (yes more) to look at and advise on bringing all leases under one but also ensuring that any change would be tax efficient.
Until they report back with recommenations we can go no further or know when scrutiny will see it again.
Other than what we have done, under the “forward plan” process is to ask to discuss it in advane of or at the same time as and put forward suggestions for inclusion etc and n our case we shall be persuing the night closure period no matter how short.
Cllr Graham Longley
