Thames Estuary airport is ‘pie in the sky madness’

Medway Council calls on Boris Johnson to visit North Kent and explain why he wants to impose one of the world’s biggest airports on its residents.

The council demands the mayor makes the trip just days after Daniel Moylan visited Maidstone to talk to members of the Kent Economic Board.

Bumper migration of wading birds at Oare Marshes

Late summer and early autumn at Oare Marshes have seen huge numbers of wading birds passing through on their annual migration to over-wintering locations.

During August and September counts in excess of 2,000 black-tailed godwit, 750 redshank, 150 dunlin,100 ringed plover, 200 golden plover and 50 curlew sandpipers have been recorded – the highest count of the latter for many years.

Medway Health and Wellbeing Board set to meet for first time

A new committee that will play a major role in ensuring Medway residents have the access to the best possible health and social care will meet for the first time on Tuesday (18/6) afternoon.

Nationally Health and Wellbeing boards have been established in all County Councils and Unitary Authorities.

LATEST AIRPORT NEWS

Statement on visit to Medway by the Aviation Commission

Sir Howard Davies and the Aviation Commission today carried out a fact-finding visit to Medway as part of its investigation into how the UK can maintain its leading global airport hub status.

Please find below a statement from Medway Council:

Cllr Alan Jarrett, Deputy Leader of Medway Council, said: “We are very pleased that Sir Howard Davies and members of the government’s Aviation Commission travelled to Medway today as it gave us an opportunity to tell them why building a huge hub airport here would be a complete non-starter.

“The Commission are on a series of fact-finding trips to look at all possible ways the Government could bring about a rapid increase in aviation capacity for the UK. “Medway Council, Kent County Council, Southend-on-sea Borough Council, the RSPB, the National Grid, LNG, Friends of North Kent Marshes and others made representations to the Commission that they do not believe the Thames Estuary is the answer.

“Building a huge hub airport from scratch would take at least 25 years to build. This is too late to stop the UK’s continued slide against its other competitors, as if something is not done now airlines will simply move to take up additional capacity already available abroad.

“It would also lead to the closure of Heathrow, which would devastate the economy to the west of London, and could lead to many multinational companies with European headquarters there simply moving abroad.

“The airport would also affect the lives of around 23,000 people and lead to the destruction of nine villages on the Hoo Peninsula. And – in order to house the around 100,000 workforce needed to service a new airport – we would need to build a new town the size of Manchester to accommodate them.

“In short, we stated that a new airport – which would devastate a globally scientifically important area used by more than 300,000 migrating birds – would have a price tag of up to £80billion and that this is simply too much for the country to pay.

“Our solution is to make better use of existing airports, including here in Kent at Manston and Lydd, with better rail links to improve connectivity to places such as Stansted and Gatwick.”

Please find at the foot of this email press release a link to a document showing a digest of the main points Medway Council put forward detailing why it believes an airport should not be built on or near the Thames Estuary.

For more information on the make up of the government’s Aviation Commission and its work please go to http://www.gov.uk/government/news/airports-commission-membership

Click HERE to see a two page briefing to the airports commision

Exploring Antarctica: Special Guest Lectures

Places are limited for two special guest lectures running alongside the exhibition “Exploring Antarctica: The Final Expeditions of Scott & Shackleton”, showing in No. 1 Smithery: The Gallery at The Historic Dockyard Chatham until 30th August.

Residents urged to use new health watchdog

Residents of all ages are being urged to use a new health watchdog to get more involved in how health services are run in Medway. Healthwatch Medway, set up as part of national government NHS reforms, has been set the task of championing the views of local people using the NHS and social care services. A new website – http://www.healthwatchmedway.co.uk – set for launch this summer, will provide residents with more information on the services it provides, how to get in touch and what it is doing to represent their views.

Long-forgotten treasure will open its doors to the public

The Old Brook Pumping Station in Solomons Road, Chatham has been completely refurbished.

The station has undergone extensive structural repairs, after a structural survery reveals subsidence was causing the front porch to lean forward and large cracks to appear in the walls. The survey revealed the combination of inadequate foundations and poor soil was the cause. The front porch has now been underpinned. Work during the six-year project included temporary support for the building, new foundations with reinforced concrete, plus replacement doors and ceiling, new signage, landscaping and decorative mouldings.

ONS sheds more light on Life in the UK

National well-being is about ‘measuring what matters’ – bringing together relevant economic, social and environmental statistics to show how the country is doing overall and how people’s lives are affected by their circumstances. Today the Office for National Statistics has brought together a breadth of information and a new web-based tool to help understand and monitor it – the ‘National Well-being wheel’ – that allows people to see how the nation is doing in the round or focus on particular areas of interest.