Representation by Chris Jeffries
- Date submitted
- 12 September 2018
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
It is my view that the opening of a Cargo Hub airport operating out of a former military airport with a flight path that is directly over towns with many residences and places of business would be the wrong decision. The number of jobs and industry that would be created by such a decision would be heavily negated by the impact on the existing economy of the town. It would also have a significant negative impact on the health and education of children who attend the significant number of schools that would be thrust into the flight path, and also those whose sleep would be dramatically affected by the arrival of cargo jets.
Since the airport was closed as a military base, there have been a number of attempts to instigate commercial and freight flights from and to the airport, but unfortunately the geography of the airport and the transport links to the airport have meant that none of those have brought any success.
I find it confusing that in a time when there is a desperate shortage of housing and facilities countrywide, a large piece of brownfield site in the South East of England, where there is a shortage of such, is not being used to the best of its capabilities to provide housing and amenities such as the current owners of the site have proposed.