Lydd gets stay of execution

Nothing epitomises the madness of the airport expansion bubble better than Lydd airport, a strip of tarmac on the Kent coast, with plans to increase passengers from 5,000 per year to 500,000.

Lydd's future was to have been decided on the 30th of January, but the chief executive of Shepway District Council Alistair Stewart has postponed the decision so the council can examine more information on ecological and noise issues. The decision meeting will now take place in two to six months time, and the demonstration called by local campaigners has also been postponed.

Even from a purely economic standpoint, expanding Lydd doesn't make sense. Kent already has a large and under-used airport: Manston, on the East coast. Manston is huge - so big that the US use it for landing shuttles - and crucially, nowhere near nuclear power stations or wildlife reserves. Of course, I'd rather both airports were closed down, but...

Lydd's even had a referendum: more than a third of eligible electors in Lydd and New Romney voted in April 2006 on whether they supported the expansion proposals. In Lydd, 741 were in favour and 916 against while in New Romney 396 were in favour and 1,288 against. That's a strong mandate against expansion.

So Lydd gets another stay of execution, which could prove crucial to its future. Six months is a long time in politics. Crucially we'll know the outcome of Stansted's public inquiry, the first major inquiry which took climate change seriously. If Stansted's inspector rules against expansion, other councils and inspectors will probably be guided by that decision. There's a very real chance that we could be looking at the end of expansion madness.

Fingers crossed...