Representation by Malcolm Davison
- Date submitted
- 25 October 2023
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
My family was associated with the construction expansion of Heathrow and Gatwick from 1950 - 1990. Over 25 years I have supported Gatwick by being a regular business flyer. I support the steady expansion of the airport within its existing boundary and using its single runway. I believe Gatwick Airport Ltd (as part of Ivy Holdco Ltd) has been doing a great job of running the airport today. But consider this: The Hayes and Hillingdon population largely serves Heathrow Airport. In 1931 this was 10,000, today it’s 90,000. Now take Crawley: in 1951 the population was 10,000 today its 120,000. A new airport increases the local population tenfold. So this expansion - not only needs the construction of houses for the ’14,000 jobs’ for the extra airport and airline staff - but also for the services that support the influx of people: the shop assistants, doctors, nurses, police, care staff, taxi drivers, garage mechanics, plumbers, builders, delivery people and the offspring of the new arrivals who may choose to commute to work in London or elsewhere. That’s where most of the housing demand comes from. Housing won’t just affect Crawley which can’t take much further expansion. An extra runway is doubling the airport’s housing needs (plus normal growth) already supplied by Horsham, Redhill, Reigate, East Grinstead, Burgess Hill, Haywards Heath, Worthing, Brighton, etc. Housing prediction The WSCC/Gatwick Diamond Business assessment for the previous ‘Second runway’ proposal in 2015 predicted that a runway would need 30,000 - 45,000 new houses. In the first two years for airport staff maybe. Longer term, based on past history, you can see from the stats above that we have to multiply this (could this be tenfold?) to cater for the service population. This would affect urban traffic congestion, road capacity in Sussex, size of reservoirs, shopping developments, sewage and waste disposal, airport parking, huge expansion of industrial estates, hospitals and schools for much of West Sussex. Are there alternatives? The HS2 train service will offer speeds of up to 225mph. That’s London to Birmingham in the same time as it takes today from Gatwick to London. So why not an airport based near Birmingham and the Government is anxious to spread the wealth to the north? Or create an airport with high speed rail links from Kent, Norfolk, Bournemouth, Bristol or Nottingham ... some of these areas would welcome an injection of prosperity. We mustn’t think just 10 years ahead we must look forward 50 years. We must learn from the past - and for the sake of our children and grandchildren - responsibly protect our semi-rural environment and lifestyle in Sussex before it is totally concreted over.