Private Hedge Fund Owned London City Airport Given Millions Of London Taxpayers Money

£50,000 to develop a website, £1.6million towards the construction of an additional apron...oh and £5m+ a year to pay for airport security.

In a recent Freedom of Information request to the London Development Agency it was revealed that between 2004 -2011 London City Airport received: £1,256,629.00 of London taxpayers money from the LDA alone.

This is just the tip of the iceberg of how London taxpayer public monies are 'given' to a joint private hedge fund owned airport: London City Airport.

Clearly, we are not all in it together at all. Shocking!

Sources:

London Development Agency:

http://www.lda.gov.uk/Documents/FOI_354_Support_to_Airports_Airport_Operators_(9_April_2009)_4925.pdf

http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/55647/response/144452/attach/4/SCANNED%20FOI%20575%20Response%204069926%201.PDF.pdf

Greater London Authority:

Len Duval, GLA Member Lab, asked a question in City Hall in 2007 about LCY's unwillingness to even contribute towards it's own security costs - LCY continue to let London taxpayers pay 100% of their security costs.

Question number 0043/2007
Meeting date 10/10/2007
Question by Len Duvall

I am not asking you to comment on the planning application; it is more about the commercial engagement with London City Airport . Are you aware that London City Airport provides no cost towards the security of its perimeters and, in a sense, that we and part of the GLA family are subsidising them? Before you enter into commercial agreements with London City Airport or give any undertaking that security, the primacy of security around our airports and users of airports comes first and therefore that they should not be subsidised by London taxpayers, they should make a contribution like other airports; even Heathrow are cooperating in that. There seems to be a real problem with London City Airport ; they do not seem to want to even engage in a conversation about costs and they are quite adamant they are not going to pay it. Do you see that as being a part of a discussion that you may wish to have to them before you exercise any commercial deal?

Answer by Manny Lewis, LDA
Given that you have raised it, Len , absolutely, in terms of the Metropolitan Police Service position. I am not familiar with those security issues; you have alerted us to those. We need to follow those up both with the Metropolitan Police Service as well as with TfL and we will certainly now factor that in.

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Article taken from the Newham Recorder but which has now been removed from the Recorder's webpage:

THE Metropolitan Police Service has spent £24 million policing London City Airport in Silvertown over the past five years, it has emerged.

The figure came to light after London Assembly Green Party member Jenny Jones tabled a question on the cost. Mayor of London Boris Johnson's written response detailed the money spent on policing in each of the last five financial years.

In 2004/05 it was £2 million, £5.5 million in 2005/06, £5.3 million in 2006/07, £5.5 million in 2007/08 and £5.6 million for the current financial year.

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Parliamentary Questions:

Neill, R - Airports use of Regional Development Agency funding
Robert Neill (Conservative Communities and Local Government Minister): To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what payments each regional development agency has made to airports in the last 12 months; and for what purposes such payments were made in each case.

Pat McFadden (Business, Innovation and Skills Minister): The following table shows RDA payments to airports in the last 12 months.


RDA
Payments to airports in the hundreds of Thousands
Purpose

AWM
£170,000
This relates to preliminary costs in respect of the project to extend the main runway at Birmingham International airport.

LDA
£1,050,000
This was a payment made as part of a £1.6 million Regional Selective Assistance (RSA) grant to London City airport. The grant was a contribution to a wider £39.8 million project to construct additional apron over the north-west corner of the George V Dock, increasing stand space and providing an extra runway link.

ONE
£416,000
This is comprised of: (a) four payments to Newcastle International airport to finance route development support to Copenhagen , Bergen and Krakow, as well as the cost of hiring a meeting room; (b) three payments to Durham Tees Valley airport for route development support to Warsaw as well as gap funding for economic development at the adjacent business park.

EDITOR’S NOTE:

AWM – Advantage West Midlands; LDA – London Development Agency; ONE – One North East; EEDA – East of England Development Agency; EMDA – East Midlands Development Agency; NWDA – North West Development Agency; SEEDA – South East of England Development Agency; SWRDA – South West Regional Development Agency; YF – Yorkshire Forward.

LDA and Developers - Building Homes Under the Flight Path?

Who wins, who loses with new homes being built under flight paths and by the side of London City Airport? Government, developers or residents? We don't think most will have difficulty in guessing the right answer.

The London Development Agency - LDA's Thames Gateway is an area which is blighted by the increasing use of jets and proposed expansion of flights, but this is just the tip of the iceberg: there's the Lea Valley, the Olympic site (the powers to be haven't mentioned the effect of LCA flights on this area), Poplar, Isle of Dogs, London Riverside, Silvertown Quays. All will be affected when they are developed. LDA need to consider their position on how they expect residents to live along an increasingly noisy airport or beneath it's flightpath - and one that wants to get a lot noisier. After all, LDA are the freeholders of the land which LCA operates on - so they could do rather a lot.

Here's some of the key players in the current and future 'residential regeneration' of the areas affected beneath the flight paths of London City Airport:

Barratts - Elektron "....a brand new rail link will whisk you to London City Airport in just fifteen minutes, virtually door to door" . But you may feel like you are rather nearer than 15 minutes away from the airport by the levels of the noise from the planes as they take off overhead.

Tilfen - Tamesis Point Occupying one of 13 locations identified as an opportunity area in the Mayor's draft plan for London, Tamesis Point will see the creation of over 2,000 new homes along a mile of the Thames River.Within an outstanding location, this landmark scheme will be dominated by a north-south orientated axis with a series of grand public spaces and formal gardens.The development will take its influences from Georgian London, while the masterplan is designed to deliver fresh, contemporary architecture with landmark buildings and community and leisure facilities befitting the location. Will they tell prospective residents that the site is partially covered by the public safety zone and they will be in the new noise contours? That it is immediately beneath the low level flight path? The one thing that 'Georgian London' didn't have was 87db+ over the roofs of their homes every 90 seconds!

Silvertown Quays
Living and breathing spaces
Silvertown Quays will be an exciting mix of new residential districts providing private and social housing with new public spaces, landscaping and a rejuvenated dock area. It will be the location for some 5,000 attractive new homes in a variety of designs and sizes - fashioned by a range of innovative architects. Many will have stunning views over the Royal Docks and the Thames. All homes will provide modern living space. There will be access to a private garden, roof terrace or balcony, or there will be shared spaces in semi-private gardens.
Sustainable communities
"The creation of a sustainable community is the goal at Silvertown Quays, it will be focused on the UK Government's policy to encourage the regeneration of brownfield sites for the benefit of local communities. It will be a safe environment for both young and old. There will be new public open spaces, a primary school, health centre and community facilities."
Will they tell future residents that is it beneath a flight path, at the end of the runway, just at the tip of the 1 in 10,000 crash zone, that the current noise levels measure 87db+ per flight are and increasing? A safe environment? Suitable to build a school on and expect residents to spend time outside, let alone live there? As for using a balcony - having windows open won't be too much of an option, let alone sitting on a balcony!

It's about time that the decision makers started to see the bigger picture, and start working on evidence based policy making. What they are currently doing is not working - residents are not happy in the regeneration areas and who can blame them? Vortexes, high and increasing levels of jet noise, and air pollution - it's not exactly what any neighbourhood needs.

Airports expanding in densely built residential areas does not work, and to continue to new build in those areas only continues to deny residents any quality of life, misleads them, affects their health and their pockets. People make communities and they should come first.

Those dreams and plans of much needed homes are just all falling down....