I have lived in Crawley all my life and have grown up with the Airport on my doorstep and at one time or another most of my family have been employed at the airport and even more relatives who have been employed in Crawley as a consequence of having a major international airport on our doorstep.
Gatwick needs to expand to bring Crawley back to its former glory as I remember a town that was vibrant before Gatwick started dwindling down and we have a need in this country to expand our airports I travel Europe widely with my job and I have been in less busy airports that have 2 runways!
The council have annoyed me by opposing the second runway at Gatwick as they are not looking at what this would bring to the region and they are opposing this based on the infrastructure but surely the second runway would mean that the infrastructure would be upgraded to accommodate this. The jobs this would bring would mean more people living in the town and paying council tax so I don't see the problem (I will address the residents issues shortly). Everything takes so long these days to get anything started in this country let alone get it to the stage of completion. I have always found it strange that Gatwick is not more of a hub for Crawley bus routes to ensure workers have easy access to the airport when I started working at the airport in 1999 there was no way of me getting there except for a taxi it was not until 2000 that metrobus introduced Gatwick Direct and now 15 years later the number 10 has to go through town and the 200 is from Horsham but Tilgate and Furnace Green remain completely u reachable by bus to the busiest single runway airport in the world. Would this be allowed in any other forward thinking country? I read a comment earlier that said we are meant to be a democracy so where is the vote for local people to decide on a second runway rather than a bunch of councilors deciding what it is people want/need!
As for the residents they are beginning to frustrate me equally with the concerns over noise and aircraft movements. Firstly there can not be to many of these residents that didn't move into their homes before the existing airport was built and more importantly probably go on holiday and like the fact Gatwick is on there doorstep and use it when it suits them! I get that if you live on the flight path that noise is an issue but guess what you could move if it annoys you that much and maybe I am imagining it but aircraft have got substantially quieter since the days of DC10's and Tristar's taking off from Gatwick and will only continue to be more noise and fuel efficient as development of new aircraft continues.
I live near Gatwick and to be honest do not even notice the noise anymore bizarrely I notice more when they stop taking off for a runway closure or thunderstorm then I do with take offs every few minutes, I travel regularly and love having the airport on our doorstep.
That said Gatwick Airport are not perfect I feel the new owners have ripped the sole out of the place and even closing the drop off area to people being collected and having the cheek to charge local residents for the privilege is a real Liberty if you ask me as even the mighty Heathrow allow people to be picked up.
Surely though this is all a of the Governments own making let's not forget it was them that made BAA sell airports off and what they did was cause Gatwick and Heathrow to be competitors rather than sister airports and now they want to hold one back from competing on a level playing field, I can not imagine this happening in any other business!
Ultimately I feel this should be something that goes ahead and I think the airport should consider funds towards a new Crawley hospital as surely we should have more than one major hospital near an airport in the event of an accident East Surrey has enough new patients with all the housing being built.
There you go that's my 2p's worth not that it will matter unless more people use there voice to force change and a vote!
Hi, Great blog post and interesting thoughts from someone who lives close to the airport. For the public like yourself who have a voice and have reasoning behind their personal decision to want the Gatwick expansion, how do you think the conflict can be resolved between Gatwick and Heathrow? Do you think there needs to be a mediator during the governments decision to reflect both sides of the airports? Allowing a fairer decision making process? How would you solve the conflict? You can read my blog post on the same subject as well - Hope you enjoy and possibly comment as well? https://paigehileypr.wordpress.com/2015/02/01/gatwick-vs-heathrow-and-the-winner-is/
ReplyDeleteHi, I do not think its about mediation the Government forced the airports to compete by breaking up BAA and I can not see a way they can hold back either airport or they are effectively killing the competition between the 2 airports.
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