 |
|
||
 |
|||
 |
 |
 |
   |  | |||||||||||||||||||||
Heathrow faces 'retirement' call
 heathrow is one of the world's most congested airports. YOUR E-MAIL ALERTSLONDON, England (CNN) -- London's Heathrow airport, one of the world's busiest international air hubs, should be "retired" and replaced by a new long-haul facility, an influential planning body has urged. Shifting the airport to a purpose-built island east of the city would free-up land for urgently needed housing and allow for the creation of a new high-speed rail network to phase out environmentally dubious short-hall flights, the Town and Country Planning Association said in a report. The association condemned Heathrow's 60-year history as "a series of minor planning disasters that together make up one of the country's truly great planning catastrophes." Heathrow has faced complaints of noise and congestion as it struggled to cope with swelling passenger numbers. Its new Terminal 5 is due to open in 2008, further increasing its capacity. The report said creating a new site in the Thames river estuary would ensure no aircraft noise over London and southeast England, no displacement for people currently facing upheaval around the city's expanding airports and direct links to the rest of Europe. Its authors stressed that the report was not a demand for the immediate closure of Heathrow, or even for its phasing out over the next 10 years. "That would be logistically impossible and economically ruinous. It is a plea for long-term planning that would result in Heathrow's replacement, and eventual closure, over a long period of time: between now and the next century," it said. The report has been greeted with criticism from groups campaigning for the expansion of Heathrow. Lord Soley, the founder of the Future Heathrow campaign for a third runway at the airport, said that the report had "got it badly wrong," according to the UK's Press Association. He told the BBC Radio 4's Today program: "The more we move investment to the East -- the Thames Estuary or wherever -- the greater the problems for the west of London. "There are 70,000 jobs at Heathrow and another 100,000 dependent on it. "The problem isn't whether we close it in 40 years, it is whether we can match it with the continental airports in the next 10 to 20 years. That's a crucial factor and that's why we do need a third runway." 
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|
| © 2007 Cable News Network LP, LLLP. A Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved. Terms under which this service is provided to you. Read our privacy guidelines. Contact us. Site Map. |
|
External sites open in new window; not endorsed by CNN.com
Pay service with live and archived video. 
