'Huge area of land needed for birds displaced by Boris Island'

 
Birds at risk: A design for the Thames Estuary airport
Foster + Partners/PA
Joseph Watts22 July 2014

Boris Johns dream of a Thames Estuary airport suffered a further setback today as a report claimed a huge amount of conservation land would need to be found to replace habitats destroyed by its construction.

The study claimed placing an airport in the estuary would lead to “a significant loss” of natural habitat.

In total, the report said an area around one-and-a half-times the size of Disneyland Paris would have to be found to compensate.

The British Trust for Ornithology document said finding such an area would be unprecedented, costly and complex.

It comes after another study ordered by the Airports Commission also outlined the negative environmental impacts of an estuary hub, a project nicknamed “Boris Island”.

Tory Gillingham and Rainham MP Rehman Chishti said: “[An estuary airport] would decimate these important environmental areas with any mitigation or compensation measures requiring vast areas of land to be made available at enormous cost.

“This is another showstopper report demonstrating why this absurd scheme should never be allowed to go ahead.”

The BTO report released today said proposals for an airport on the Hoo Peninsula would cause “a significant loss of both freshwater and inter-tidal coastal wetland habitat”.

It added that some 21,000 waterbirds that currently use the area proposed for development would be directly affected, with many more indirectly affected.

The study said that, according to EU rules, at least 3,400 hectares would need to be found to compensate.

It added: “As well as the physical challenges of compensation there is also significant financial cost to add to the construction costs of the airport.”

Medway council pointed out 3,400 hectares is equivalent to one-and-a-half times the size of Disneyland Paris.

Council leader Rodney Chambers said: “This latest research is yet another stumbling block in these Mickey Mouse plans. We’d like to know where Mr Johnson plans to home these birds as we’re not aware of a spare 3,400 hectares in Medway, or anywhere else on the South-East coast.”

An Airports Commission study found the cost of alleviating damage could soar to over £2 billion.

The Mayor’s chief adviser on aviation, Daniel Moylan, said: “We take the environmental impacts of building a new airport extremely seriously and, although extensive new habitats for birds and other wildlife would need to be found, experts have declared it would be perfectly possible.

“We estimate the cost of providing that habitat at £500 million... and that has been budgeted for in our plans.”

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