London City Airport gets a makeover
Q: What do you get if you take an idiotic government policy, add a dash of self serving business interest, a sprinkle of corruption, a handful of cash incentives and a short sighted local council, rub them all together and leave them to bake in one of the poorest boroughs in London?
A: London City Airport!
When central government asked all airports in the country to figure out the most effective way to shit on local communities whilst increasing carbon emissions as much as humanly possible – otherwise known as putting together an airport masterplan – London City Airport's owners, Global Infrastructure Partners, began rubbing their grimey money-grabbing palms together with glee. Their time had surely come!
And to be honest, they're doing a pretty good job of taking the piss. Heathrow's third runway may be threatening to bulldoze 700 homes, create a carbon emitting monolith and wipe out any possibility of meeting any climate change targets whatsoever. But do BAA have the self serving arrogance of LCA's owners with their audacious claims that a 50% increase in air traffic from City Airport - achievable only by enticing the business elite to pump increasing levels of noxious emissions and noise across one of the poorest and most polluted areas of London - will actually benefit the local community?
Luckily, even though the airport has bought out the local council (or is it that the councillors have bought the airport?...), and despite their determination to bribe the local community and ignore the fact that we're heading for climate catastrophe, the rest of us are fortunate enough to be able to see through their lies.
So it comes as no surprise that City Airport has been getting a bit of a makeover lately. A little reminder that this battle has only just begun. They'd better watch this space...
