"Quote: "No. Read the ES article again.
"The Standard has been told the favoured new option is to build on land stretching from the existing airport towards Stanwell Moor village and north of local reservoirs"
But a runway that started west of the Bedfont oil terminal would point directly at the Staines Reservoir, and could only be about 1200m long, which is clearly ridiculous."
No, it's just north of the Staines Reservoir, that's why Hithermoor Farm was suggested as the western end. It also allows some room between the rwy end and the M25 and the bank of Wraysbury reservoir. A length of 1 mi. east takes it past Stanwellmoor village and as far as Stanwell village. Another mile east takes it to the Longford river (would need diverting) and the southern end of the cargo area. So it's longer than your suggested 1,200m./0.75 mi.. If being seriously considered, the rwy would probably have to be shorter than the 2 mi. originally mentioned, so let's split the difference at 1.50-1.75 mi.!
However it's not practical and is not going to happen: Stanwell will not be demolished. Was listing this particular third rwy as a hypotheitical example of how it could be crammed in after studying a proper map. The ES map is particularly useless for this purpose.
Quote: "I think the fact that, unlike all the previous proposals, we haven't seen a published plan that actually shows the runway position/alignment tells us all we need to know about how well it has been thought through.
One might even conclude that the whole scheme is a red herring, not intended to be taken seriously, the object being simply to mobilise the maximum opposition to it and thereby "prove" that the northern option wasn't so bad after all."
Think that you are spot on with this analysis!
Last edited by Fairdealfrank; 10th Jun 2013 at 16:59.