London mayor calls for closure of LHR

[Hvr]

London Mayor Boris Johnson said he would submit formal proposals to close Heathrow Airport and replace it with a four-runway hub east or north of the capital.


The government could buy Heathrow and use the 1,220-hectare site to build homes for as many as 250,000 people, creating a new borough that would help ease a national housing shortage, the mayor said on Monday.

Read more: Close Heathrow, Johnson says
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Wow I cannot imagine the technical and engineering resources that would be needed to achieve Boris' wish, nor that it could even be fulfilled in a meaningful time frame.

 

[samh004]

While it's a novel idea, it seems ridiculous considering not 5 years ago T5 opened at a cost of £4 billion alone! It doesn't matter where it'll be built though, if it ever gets off the ground, as the airport will attract residential development, which will start imposing noise issues on the airport in enough time and constrain it. While sometimes it can't be helped, you shouldn't be able to buy near an airport and then complain about the impact of it.

 

[RooFlyer]

Sounds like Boris just lobbing a bit of an opinion grenade into the Heathrow debate. Stand back and see what happens.

 

[drewbles]

Ahh Boris. A Hair-brained idea (mind you, look at his hair says a lot ).