Cliffe
The government would be backing a loser (in my humble opinion) if it were to try and push through the Cliffe option. If they argue that the bird sancturary will not be disturbed then they would leave themselves wide open to the air safety lobby. Well would you fancy ingesting a flock of wading birds into your engines. If the birds will in no way be disturbed and as the wetlands are home to several thousand wetland birds this must be a very significant risk. Any publicity of this risk will have an adverse effect on passenger confidence.
Infrastructure in the region is good for the amount of traffic using it at the moment. But the development of the Hoo peninsula is high up on the list of objectives in the Medway Local Plan and is being pushed by the Thames gateway organisation. Projected traffic figures could make the infrastructure have the same sort of problems as the M25/M4 junction has now. The Hoo peninsula is surrounded on three sides by water leaving open only one side (bridges excepted) for the traffic flows into and out of the site. Not really an ideal place for an airport then.
Would be interested to hear pilot's views on the impact that the airport at Cliffe would have on existing flightpaths in the area.
Would love to see the UK really attempting to compete with Schiphol, CDG et al to maintain their position as a competitive international hub.
DeepC