The proposals for a massive airport just across the estuary from Leigh on Sea threaten our local environment, our peace and quiet, and UK carbon emissions. The proposals put forward by the Mayor of London, and by Labour peer Lord Foster are for a massive, twenty-four hour a day, seven day a week airport that would be built on a huge artificial platform, transforming the estuary.
Leigh Liberal Democrat councillor Alan Crystall, West Leigh Liberal Democrat Chris Bailey, and Peter Welch, Liberal Democrat for Southend West in the 2010 General Election are campaigning against the proposals.
There is a lot more Liberal Democrat opposition too. Nick Clegg has criticised the idea: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travelnews/9023815/Nick-Clegg-threatens-to-veto-unviable-vision-of-a-new-airport-in-the-Thames-Estuary.html . (It is worth following this link to see how the new airport might look.)
And Cambridge MP Julian Huppert has been outspoken in his opposition.
But local people need to show how strongly they feel if the proposals are to be stopped. Please sign the petition, and encourage friends, family, neighbours and colleagues to do so too.
The Thames Estuary is an enormous environmental asset for Essex and Kent, a home to thousands of birds, fish, seals, and insects. We the undersigned call on the Government to reject the proposals made by Boris Johnson and Lord Foster to concrete over large areas of the estuary to build an enormous, seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day airport, with potentially devastating impact on the local environment, on carbon emissions and on noise pollution right across the Estuary.