Boris hits out at 'myopic' decision to ditch airport

BORIS JOHNSON has attacked the decision to dump his Thames estuary airport plan as short-sighted but

Flop: London mayor yesterday after his Boris Island plan was thrown out.

said he believed it will still be chosen.

London's mayor accused the Airports Commission of 'setting back the debate by half a century' after it rejected his Boris Island proposals.

The government-appointed commission, headed by Sir Howard Davies, said the cost and environmental concerns made it 'too risky'.

The decision leaves two shortlisted schemes — two involving expansion at Heathrow airport and the other for a new runway at Gatwick.

But Mr Johnson said: 'In one myopic stroke the commission has consigned their work to the long list of reports on aviation expansion that are gathering dust in Whitehall.'

He insisted the four-runway estuary scheme on the Isle of Grain in Kent would create the jobs and growth needed to keep Britain competitive.

'Gatwick is not a long-term solution and Howard Davies must explain to the people of London how he can possibly envisage that an expansion of Heathrow, which would create unbelievable levels of noise, blight and pollution, is a better idea than a new airport to the East of London,' said Mr Johnson.

'It remains the only credible solution and I'm absolutely certain that it is the option that will eventually be chosen.'

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Shadow transport secretary Mary Creagh said: 'Boris Johnson's fantasy island airport plan, which would have closed Heathrow and caused longer passenger journeys, has finally been dashed. Time and public money should never have been spend on his vanity project whose costs have been put at up to GBP100billions.'

02 Sept 2014, Medway Council in Kent said the estuary plan 'should never have even been considered.