Gatwick Removes Foreign Ownership Information from Website – Why? Here’s why.

Gatwick has removed information about its foreign owners on its website, a move carried out last week. What they would rather you didn’t know just before the latest consultation ends is that they are mainly owned by an American hedge fund.

Its time, says Steve Haysom from Chiddingstone in Kent, to bring our public servants to book on this issue. He writes:

‘Airport expansion is for the few at the expense of the many and there is a great deal of frustration and anger that has been created by the contemptuous way in which the British Public are being treated.

In West Kent and East Sussex we are lucky enough to inhabit amenity space that is just thirty miles from what will, by 2030, be a megalopolis ‘boasting’ 10,000,000 inhabitants – with respect to this fact it stands to reason that places where people seek tranquility and home grown businesses reliant upon tourism would of course flourish. Not everyone wants to fly on a plane to get away every weekend.

It is not anti-Capitalist to feel at some point that the requirement to preserve the environment should outweigh commercial considerations – for instance, it is not possible to put a price on a picnic with your family next to the lake at Hever Castle. However, it will not be possible to have a picnic by the lake at Hever Castle if Gatwick bulldozes through its plans and, to dispel any lingering doubts, our public servants appear to sit around on their elbows contributing nothing.

Here is the question that politicians will not ask those that will be blighted – ‘are you happy that by my inactivity I will be implicitly supporting a proposition that will reduce the quality of your life to the benefit of foreign investors’?

I can’t imagine that being met with universal approbation.

With the benefit of hindsight this mess was inevitable from the moment the forced sale of Gatwick went through. Is an American hedge fund likely to shed a tear that the price to be paid for its predicted 20% return on investment was the destruction of the High Weald and misery for thousands of people? Er, no.

So – who actually owns Gatwick Airport and thereby stands to profit from the potential destruction of your health, wealth and happiness?

Gatwick is wholly-owned by Ivy Bidco Limited (Ivy), a company formed to undertake the acquisition of Gatwick. Ivy is ultimately controlled by funds managed by Global Infrastructure Management, LLC, part of Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) – a $15 billion dollar infrastructure fund out of New York.

Following an equity syndication process, GIP retains a 42% controlling stake in Gatwick. The other shareholders are the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), National Pension Service of Korea (NPS), California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) and the Future Fund of Australia.

GIP is headed by Adebayo Ogunlesi who has not the slightest interest in you or your well being. GIP exists only to line its pockets and reward its shareholders, which include public pension funds from Maine, Oregon and Washington.

Up until a week ago this information was displayed on the Gatwick website; this is no longer the case.

Gatwick has thrown a few pathetic crumbs around to support infrastructure and create apprenticeships, but it appears nervous that it should be found out for destroying our bucolic idyll for the sole benefit of a bunch of foreign investors.

Once its voracious thirst for growth is slaked it will sell the airport to the massive benefit of its investors and you will be left cursing in the smoking embers of what is left of the life you once enjoyed.

GIP? Don’t worry about them – one of their core business interests is energy infrastructure so now that fracking has been tipped the wink, it could soon be slapping a pipeline across another tract of land that you used to enjoy.

Mr Carter, Leader of the KCC – you have been approached enough times now – if you are not able to articulate KCCs policy regarding Gatwick expansion I’m not sure what you’re for! What I do see is the potential for an immediate £200k saving on transport costs alone from not having an airport and that would look pretty handsome in our campaign kitty.

Eight days and counting until the end of the airspace route consultation. I for one will do whatsoever I can to assist in stopping this absolute outrage of aviation expansion.’

 

Concerned about Gatwick’s plans? See CAGNE East website for updates on developments: cagne-east.co.uk Email: cagne.east@gmail.com

Tunbridge Wells Borough Council Meeting 17th June 2014 – Personal Notes

Sitting amongst my betters in the majestic surroundings of the main hall at the borough council offices, I was reminded of the poem ‘The Second Coming’ by Yeats:

‘Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer:’

I was thinking it could be renamed ‘The Second Runway’ instead.

Half of the sixty or so people attending the meeting about aviation noise chaired by KCC member and Kent’s GATCOM representative, Matthew Balfour, were members of the public, the other half district and parish councillors from across Kent and Sussex including Major Streatfeild, Chair of the High Weald Parish Councils Aviation Action Group (HWPCAAG). No representative MP’s were present.  Everyone stared towards a central information board. Speakers, including Mr Joe Ratcliffe, Principle Transport Planner for the KCC, referred to various maps that glared red with flight path densities, and the slow bearing of British bureaucracy reflected in the Chairman’s face: everyone looked like amateurs by contrast to the ruthless operations of big business.

Gatwick expansion via the new ‘Superhighway’ route means about 350 planes per day – ALL southern airport arrivals – in a concentrated stream above West Kent most of the year from 06:30-11:30 hours without respite.  What we were all looking at on the maps was the beautifully stark as well as ugly reality of Gatwick’s pursuit of profit involving the flight of giant lumps of metal burning kerosene, and thereby the expected demise of West Kent’s Tourist and Leisure industries.

Tunbridge Wells Borough Council has come to this process rather late. The Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB’s) of the High Weald and adjacent wildlife areas, together with West Kent’s empirical stately homes, are already significantly compromised by aircraft noise and air pollution.  Aircraft expansion increases Public Health issues for West Kent residents, particularly stress induced effects on cardiovascular health as well as increased incidences of lung disease.  Expected property blight could be pronounced as a result of the Superhighway, together with pressure on the learning environment for children in otherwise well performing Tunbridge Wells schools. And even without a second runway, Gatwick plans to increase passenger numbers from 35 million to 45 million over the next couple of years.

Some key points arising from the meeting included:

• Aviation noise (like noise from trains and cars) is not a statutory nuisance
• CAA has legal duties to protect AONB’s from overflight but, from the Government’s Aviation Policy Framework (March 2013) only ‘where practical’ i.e. Gatwick is surrounded by AONB’s
• Noise from planes is mainly measured for departures. All measurements are averages over a 16 hour period. This takes no account of the number of planes flying i.e. neither the Government nor Gatwick acknowledge any noise problem over West Kent and East Sussex. The Government show no intention of changing this outdated method of measurement, despite evidence of bias in favour of aviation companies.
• Gatwick expect a ‘noise shadow’ of 2km from the ‘Superhighway’ of 60dB or more. Planes make more noise when turning.

The extent of feeling on the issue of aircraft noise was very apparent throughout the meeting, and especially keen from attending members of the public. Some were from as far afield as Broadwater in south Tunbridge Wells. There were many accounts of how planes are now flying lower and more frequently, together with the sense of wanting to do something about the problem, while at the same time not knowing what.

Parish Councillors, most of them mentioning increased numbers of complaints from their residents about aircraft noise, put forward a number of measures by which noise from planes might be reduced. Many expressed surprise that there should be such noise disturbances so far from Gatwick airport – a matter of around twenty miles – when at one time Gatwick’s main approach path barely extended beyond East Grinstead, which now has a flight exclusion zone in effect.

I may be an amateur but at least I was there at the TWBC meeting last night. The concluding agreement for better coordination of resistance to Gatwick’s expansion amounted to no more or less than a democratic call to arms: it’s never too late for that. Especially when it’s a matter of protecting where we live and what we value most.