New Heathrow runway should never take off
In your ‘Brexit: New Dawn’ pages last week, you detailed the Prime Minister’s planned building spree and reported how business leaders are urging him to stop the decades of dithering over a third runway at Heathrow and publicly endorse the £14 billion scheme.
I have misgivings over the project. I don’t believe that £14 billion would begin to cover it. It would cost £50 billion at least. And would we get value for money, at a time when we should be thinking in terms of decreasing air travel, since it is one of the main contributors to greenhouse gases? Not if we value our own and our children’s futures.
True, there might be benefits in terms of tourism, but these would be wholly offset by the destruction of a large part of the London Green Belt. The project does not stand up on either economic or environmental grounds. Tony Kelly,
Crook, Co Durham
Given the fact that air travel is one of the main factors behind climate change, it would be folly to build a new runway at Heathrow. It would also entail yet more spending on transport in the South, which already gets more than its fair share.
Tim Mickleburgh, Grimsby
I read with despair Neil Craven’s article on Heathrow’s third runway. No mention of the many health problems suffered by those living near Heathrow caused mainly by pollution, including the higher incidence of childhood asthma, lung cancer, and diminished quality of life. It seems to be all about money while the population’s health is ignored. Name and address supplied
‘As we waste 20 years talking, the Chinese build 100 airports’ ran one of your headlines last week about Heathrow’s third runway.
In 1971, my final-year project as a civil engineering student was on the crossings of the River Mersey between Widnes and Runcorn. At the time, a second road bridge was already in the early design stages. I was retired before it got built!
Frank Proe, Cheshire
In your ‘Brexit: New Dawn’ coverage about plans for infrastructure, it was claimed that Boris Johnson had ‘backed
HS2 seven months ago’. I think he should use his winning touch at popular votes to put the matter to the people, and we should have our say on future rail services in a referendum.
J. Stone, Chigwell Row, Essex
If HS2 is given the go-ahead, it will be the Concorde of the railways, a premium service for the rich.
The only working-class people on these shiny new trains will be the stewards and stewardesses. And what’s the betting that the executives will use the time saved on their high-speed journeys to enjoy an extra-long lunch in the boardroom? Sean Gallagher,
Erdington, Birmingham
Isn’t it clear by now that we just can’t do big projects? Just look at the mess of Crossrail. J. Bowden, Swindon