GRUMPY OLD BIRDER says bringing an old airport back to life near his home will not affect birdlife

Bo Beolens

DO YOU REMEMBER the Rio dictum ‘Think Global, Act Local’? How about NIMBY – ‘Not In My Back Yard’? Not everyone does. My local Green Party is railing against a plan to resurrect our local airport, which shut down a couple of years back. They are supporting turning the site into housing and recreation instead. Bravo, you may cry! Houses and jobs before foreign holidays and unnecessary overseas food imports. I’m sure they are the very thoughts of the local greens. Oddly, given it is our backyard, the majority of the locals want to see the airport back. Step back and mix a little realism with a lot of globalism. The airport is close enough to London to relieve some of the pressure to create another runway at one of the major London airports. Think back and recall that this used to be the busiest freight airport in the country with a runway big enough to deal with Jumbo Jets. Yes, but the take-off and landing is over the sea. What is more it’s over an important mudflat; a Site of Scientific Special interest (SSSI) with thousands of waders and wildfowl. Think again, there is no history of bird strikes here. Moreover, the birds were as numerous when it was a busy airport as they are now that the