Representation by John Dennison
- Date submitted
- 20 October 2023
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
1 Gatwick is promoting this as improvement of an existing runway, but it isn't an existing runway as there is only one runway usable. They are building a new runway. It is not even in the same position as the existing emergency runway that they claim to be improving. Calling it an improvement is simply a very transparent ploy to get around the Government's policy of no new runways. 2 There is only one main road to Gatwick and there are no plans to change this. Most traffic will have to travel around the M25 and onto the M23. The M25 is already notorious for jams and the M23 would become so, driving traffic onto unsuitable local roads. 3 Gatwick is in the wrong place to serve as a "London" airport. Being so close to the South Coast, it's catchment area is to the North. It is currently big enough to serve locally based passengers and businesses. Heathrow and Stanstead are better positioned to serve as additional London airports and have a wider catchment area as they are away from the coast. 4 The last investigation resulted in a Government decision that any expansion around London should be at Heathrow, not at Gatwick. Nothing has changed since then. 5 There are no plans to increase the capacity of the railway line to Gatwick from London and my understanding is that it is in any case impossible to provide additional tracks due to the built up nature of Croydon, which the line passes through. 32 million more passengers will cause havoc.