THE shortsighted council disregards public opinion it sought in the JAAP report.

This insensitive council is now to evict six families to make way for a strip of concrete to ensure the airport (beast) grows and becomes more threatening.

Happier days will be those we will look back on when the airport (beast) was dormant, under control and slept at night like we need to!

Soon we won’t be able (allowed) to sleep. Soon the roads around the airport will become gridlocked because the single runway totally bi-sects the airfield forcing communications between the present operating area in the South East corner [of the country] and the proposd expansion ares in the North West to be carried on existing roads.

The above observation excludes arriving and departing traffic on existing roads.

The above also excludes freight (cargo) traffic i.e. lorries operating at night because the existing roads are quieter then.

Is our town prepared for this beast? Do we want this beast so close? Let’s thank the Lord there are no trees at the airport for the short-sighted council to get excited over.

B J Cole
Gayton Road, Southend

Re: Mr Knightley’s letter regarding Southend Airport. Could the gentleman inform us all which website he got his info from regarding the freight flights every 15 minutes, as I for one would like to see what else it contains. *

Southend, by definition, is a regional airport. In size terms it would fit into a corner of either Heathrow or Gatwick. So there is no way a plane with either freight, passengers or both could be dealt with as the infrastructure could not cope. **

Yes, aircraft are noisy, but nowhere near as noisy as 20 years ago. Once the plane has taken off that is. *** The real noise problems is car noise, 24 hours a day, ,seven days a week. Plus pupils being taken to school by car when they could easily walk. That with the blaring car radios. Another nuisance.

Brian Fry’s query re residents moving in then moaning is quite correct. **** I fully accept that people will have differing views on this subject. But I hate having to go to Heathrow or Gatwick, trying to use the motorways when I could and should be allowed to fly from my local airport. *****

After all, it was possible from the early days until the early 1980s.

Colin Paynter, Connaught
Gardens, Shoeburyness.

* Mr Knightley didn’t refer to any websites in his letter, so we take this to be an oblique reference to our website. However, we provide evidence that flights are likely to be more frequent than every 15 minutes at peak times.

** Mr Paynter seems to be unaware that this is exactly what Stobart propose.

*** We invite Mr Paynter to watch Stobart’s video showing the 90dB noise contour for three jets using the runway at Southend airport.

**** Apart from being totally wrong. See June Carr’s response on this issue.

***** Now we come down to it – a selfish expectation of a right to fly, overriding the right of others to enjoy a life uninterrupted by constant aircraft noise.

MR Fry should stop comparing apples to oranges if he wants to make any sense. Surely flying freight and passengers in and out of Southend airport to make profit pales into insignificance against flying fighter aircraft to defend the country’s freedom in World War Two.

And yes, traffic fumes are bad in Leigh and Southend due to the already congested roads, but increasing that traffic and adding more aircraft can only make the pollution worse, so what exactly is his point?

Comparing the number of fatalities on the road to those linked to the airport is ridiculous. The number of people involved in road journeys versus those made in aircraft is millions of times greater, making the comparison meaningless. Statistically, air travel is safer than road travel, but aircraft crashes do happen and this is a densely populated area. Mr Fry also seems to have forgotten that a light aircraft crashed into Eastwood Park, killing the pilot in 2006. The crash happened in the afternoon in an area close to housing, schools and busy traffic on the A127. Imagine the fuel laden jet coming down in those circumstances.

Finally Mr Fry, people moved to Leigh because it has actually retained some of its original charm and characer, unlike the surrounding area which has been modernised to oblivion. No one reasonably would have expected a plan to vastly increase the amount of traffic flying out of the airport in an area with infrastructure so poorly suited to supporting it, frankly the idea makes about as much sense as his letter.

Mr K Cutts, Manchester
Drive, Leigh.

I WOULD like to reply to Mr Fry’s letter (YA 21/04/10) and must say I found his comments quite condescending.

What exactly is Mr Fry’s point then? Is it in favour of more jobs, well according to a previous letter the workforce building the station nad control tower are apparently part of Mr Stobart’s own associated companies, does he really think that there will be jobs for local people?

I notice Mr Fry lives in Basildon, so he won’t mind if we arrive outside his house with a loud speaker blaring a recording of the aircraft at 1 o’clock and 6.30 in the morning and every five minutes while he is sitting in his garden on a summer’s day, although we won’t be able to recreate the overpowering smell of fuel to accompany it.

we live about 200 metres from the taxi runway and about 300 metres from the main runway and some times the noise of the recent aircraft has rattled the glasses on the unit.

Does he realise the area has been so built up since the 60s and will be a disaster for our children, residents and infrastructure?

I fully agree with <a href=”http://www.saen.org.uk/2010/04/stobart-has-brainwashed-our-council/”>Mr Knightley’s letter</a>, and I am fed up with people’s opinions who do not live in the area.

If they lived around the airport it would be a different story. Stobart is freight and states freight will be carried on the passenger planes.

Well, there won’t be much room for luggage will there.

It may be the planes will only go where the freight is to go which may not be a destination people may want to go.

Is getting a plane from this airport once or so a year worth the anguish, disruption, health issues, noise, pollution for many people for 52 weeks a year.

We have lived here for 20 years there were no searches to warn us this airfield would ever be able to be turned into an airport to the scale of the proposals and we have learned to live in harmony with the airport as it is and that is OK.

But the comments of ‘why live near an airport?’ in such a sarcastic manner. I would point out you moved into a house and you knew and accepted there was a road in front of your house.

June Carr, via e-mail

If Miss K Baxter is so concerned about developments at Southend Airport, why has it taken so long for her to wield the mighty pen in defence of Leigh?

Miss Baxter seems to have added nothing new to the debate and churns out hte same old last week to write a letter of complaint to the press.

I don’t know how old Miss K Baxter is, but if she had been old enough to remember the Hurricanes, Spitfires and Blenhein bombers ‘crashing in and out of the airfield from dawn to dusk’ in defence of Essex, I don’t think she would have considered complaining then.

If Miss Baxter wanted to be taken seriously she should have avoided using such overdramatic language in her letter.

At best, Southend could only be considered as a regional airport; and even then with the short runway extension, only relatively small passenger aircraft – and not necessarily jets – will be able to land there. This would never be another Stanstead.

How about this one:- “the air fills with fumes”.

Miss Baxter, do you know how many road vehicles pass through the streets of Leigh every day belching fumes?

Or this:- “Putting our children, friends and neighbours’ lives at risk”:

Miss Baxter, when was the last resident of Leigh killed on the ground as a result of commercial aircraft using Southend Airport?

Don’t bother to look it up; it was on May 3, 1967 – 43 years ago – not a bad record you must agree – now ask yourself how many people have been killed on the roads of Leigh in the same period?

Southend Airport needs to be utilised more to survive. If this does not happen, it would be an ideal spot to build a large housing estate and think of the disruption to Leigh’s ‘quaint charm and tranquility’ this would case – more roads, more cars, more congestion, crowded schools and hospitals – need I go on?

Finally, Miss Baxter, the airfield has been in operation since 1914 and there are probably few people now living in Leigh who were there before the airfield was built.

One question no protester ever seems to be able to answer is: If residents were aware of the airfield and that they would be under or near a flight path if they moved to Leigh, why did they move there?

Brian Fry, Sparrows Herne,
Basildon

APART from giving huge numbers of people a peaceful weekend, the volcanic eruption in Iceland showed that there are other ways to travel.

Coaches, ships and trains, if properly organised, are able to cater for most European destinations without the need to fly.

Perhaps we are all being given a message.

David Barratt
Southbourne Grove, Westcliff

AFTER brainwashing our council into allowing a 300-metre extension to the runway at the cynically renamed ‘London’ Southend Airport, we are now presented in the Yellow Advertiser with the plans by airport manager Andrew [Alastair] Welch and Stobart’s to build a massive airport terminal resembling the Death Star to all residents of Leigh-on-Sea and Rochford.

I am not a politician and have never sought to be, however I find it absolutely astonishing that a company like Stobarts with no connection, history or links to the area whatsoever can come here and start to fly jets.

These will carry their freight mainly from 6.30am to 11pm every 15 minutes over this densely populated area comprising a largely elderly and retired and in many respects, disabled community, without a concern for the noise (which will be horrendous!), the pollution that will be astronomical and the safety!

They will be in total breach of our Human Right to a quiet life.

I, then, am totally dumbfounded, shocked and disgusted that the local council, who are supposed to represent their electorate, who are mainly all against it, find this all quite ‘acceptable’ and vote in favour of the planning application on the promise of a few jobs for the area.

I mean, if I start a lawnmower in my back garden on a Sunday morning at 6.30am (let alone a jet engine), I am sure all the neighbours would complain and I would be told to stop immediately by the council (and rightly so).

However, jets flying at low levels overhead carrying Stobart’s freight every 15 minutes, that is acceptable!

The noise alone must be above certain guidelines and bylaws that the council has obviously chosen to ignore.

As I said before, I am pretty certain that a large amount of the population affected will have absolutely no idea what is coming their way. The public needs to be informed.

The other classic argument is that this airport must be ready for the Olympics and Paralympics 2012.

How low can Andrew [Alastair] ‘Whisper Jet’ Welch go that he finds it acceptable to use the heroes of our Paralympic team to ‘justify’ him flying low level jets spewing noise and air pollution over the area to line his and his Stobarts buddies pockets?

Aren’t the Olympics in Stratford? And how is Stobart’s flying its freight at 6.30am on a Sunday morning over the heads of sleeping retired folk going to help the Olympics and Paralympics? What about the disabled folk trying to rest or sleep under the flight path?

Our own Olympian from Leigh-on-Sea, Mark Foster, would surely not want to be anywhere near this airport during his training as he would need total peace and quiet during the night as part of his training and recovery.

The only connection I can see with the Olympics is the speed at which this has been rushed through. That is surely worthy of an Olympic record alone (anything that quick would surely be the subject of a drug test after the event).

And finally, there were reports that Stobart was building a new control tower at the airport. Why bother?

It appears Stobart can control Southend Council without the need for a new control tower or are you going to rename them ‘Stobart’s Southend Council’ like the airport?

Mr T Knightley
Address supplied

NOW that the airport expansion has been allowed by the mainly Conservative council, led by a certain Councillor Nigel Holdcroft, do the residents of Leigh-on-Sea realise that in a short time their ‘quiet’ lives will never be the same again?

The reality is there are going to be low level jets ‘screaming’ over our heads after taking off from Southend airport every 15 minutes of every day and commencing from 6.30am up to 11pm at night.

Leigh-on-Sea is immediately under the flight path.

You will no longer be able to sit in your back gardens in the summer in peace and quiet and forget keeping your windows open as the noise and fumes will be wafting through from the jets mainly carrying freight for the Stobart group or cheap flight passengers to Spain etc. It is hoped there will be two million of them.

The roads will be clogged up with all this lot travelling to and from the airport in their cars and no plan has been thought of how to cope with that.

The plans have been rushed through by all concerned so that certain members of the Stobart group can get their bonuses for completing on time and supposedly in the name of creating a few jobs for the area – and damn the thousands of elderly and mainly retired residents who came to Leigh for peace and quiet!

Enjoy this summer in Leigh – it will be your last before things really take off.

I was at one of the local meetings – it was a done deal and the residents had no chance.

Leigh-on-Sea will probably be renamed ‘Stobarts-on-Air’. Oh and by the way, the council might give you some compensation in a year or two for your property being devalued (that’s if anyone will want to buy it) and offer sound protection.

Building this airport extension in this heavily built-up area is complete madness and beyond logic.

So than you for nothing Mr Alistair Welch (airport manager), Stobarts and the Conservative councillors – I am sure that as we batten down the hatches soon we will have the knowledge that the jet flying over head has somehow helped the British Economy and brought regeneration to a few of the jobless of Southend, courtesy of a few elected councillors.

If you are unhappy, you must complain about this to Southend Council in the first instance and then John Denham MP – both main instigators of the people destroying the Leigh-on-Sea way of tranquil life.

Mr T Knightley
Address supplied