London City Airport and it's Chief Executive Richard Gooding were today criticised for it's 'corporate conspiracy of silence' around its Public Safety Zone impact Boris Johnson's Cable Car application.
The Cable Car is a joint application between Transport for London and the London Development Agency from whom London City Airport have received £millions in taxpayer subsidies. [1]
TfL claim London City Airport raised no 'crash zone' objection and assured them that there was no issue relating to the Cable Car going through the Public Safety Zone. Richard de Cani told planning committees that London City Airport had no problem with the Cable car going through the safety zone.
London City Airport have refused to confirm this to be true and has refused to respond to questions relating to the crash zone. Did London City Airport tell TfL , as TfL claim , that there was no issue relating to the Cable Car and the Public Safety Zone? Did London City airport raise the crash zone as an issue at all?
London City Airport did raise an objection on safeguarding yet have studiously avoided any mention or comment about the Public Safety Zone
a far cry from their objection to Crossrail developing in the same zone. In a petition against Crossrail to the House of Lords they stated
"The worksite proposed as part of the Crossrail proposals at the Connaught bridge falls within the Public Safety Zone at the western end of the Airport. This is contrary to the objective of the Public Safety Zone which is to minimise the number of people working or congregating within the Zone" [2]
Newham Council have a safeguarding policy relating to London City Airports crash zone but since the application the Supplementary Planning Guidance has been found to be incomplete and the key DfT Circular Guidance section 18 on Transport Infrastructure has been completely omitted while maps are modelled on pre-expansion planning approval. [3] [4]
Alan Haughton said
"London City Airport's silence is deafening. Richard Gooding must now make his position clear. Has London City Airport told TfL that it's ok to build the Cable Car through it's Crash zone?"
ENDS
Spokesperson - 0790 515 6922
(1) TfL Cable Car application update http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloads/corporate/cable-car-update-leaflet.pdf
(2) Crossrail / House Of Lords London City Airport objection http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200708/ldbills/014/l63.pdf
(3) Newham Council Supplementary Guidance for London City Airport
http://www.newham.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/1F1E5159-6CB2-45E1-B719-D6597CB9EDE7/0/LondonCityAirport.pdf
(4)DfT Public Safety Zone Circular http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/aviation/safety/circular012010/
