“No question airports drive prosperity” claim

James E Brathwaite CBE, Chairman of SEEDA — the Regional Development Agency for the South East - visited Southampton Airport to find out more about its plans for growth, as part of his recent tour of the city, and praised the "vibrant and thriving operation..."

He said: "I was very impressed with the vibrant and thriving operation at Southampton Airport. It is a pivotal development for the continued economic growth and prosperity of the sub-region and has demonstrated how accelerating capacity for passengers can be handled in a positive and sustainable manner. There is no question that airports drive prosperity and economic development. The people of South Hampshire need the employment that they bring and the wealth they create and everyone should support it wholeheartedly."

But this thinking was indeed questioned at the public meeting in Bitterne Park on October 18, where hundreds of people turned out to express their opposition to the Airport’s masterplan for expansion. There were objections to the current levels of noise, and concerns about safety, pollution and the environment.

Nic Ferriday, from AirportWatch, also questioned this conventional wisdom about the economy: “Actually there's no real evidence that the amount of aviation is a significant determinant of the size of our economy. Logic tells us that actually it's the other way around: the amount of air travel is a function of the size of the economy. Aviation is just a product, just a service, just like other things we, and businesses, buy. And yet the way you hear people talk about the importance of expanding it, you'd think it was quite different.”

Mr Ferriday said that tourism takes twice as much out of the economy as it brings in. “There's a balance of payments deficit of about Ł15 billion per annum, in the UK as a whole. And in the South East of England, if you exclude London, which is a bit of a special case, there's a 3.3 to 1 balance against. So for every pound brought into the area, Ł3.3 goes out as a result of tourism.”

Mr Ferriday also questioned the benefits of any job increases: “…when people say, ‘it creates jobs so it must be a good thing,’ you really do have to think just a bit more broadly than that….”

One problem of increasing jobs is the increase of immigration, and attendant problems that can cause in an area, such as housing shortages, he said. “We're already seeing all of that in west London, so much so that BAA were at pains to show how few jobs would be created by Terminal 5!”

You can read his full speech on bitternepark.info here.



In the news

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