London City expansion 'will benefit homeowners'
25.01.08
Ken Livingstone is on collision course with the big employers at Canary Wharf and the City over his opposition to London City Airport, according to Martin Waller at the Times. Someone has sent Mr. Waller a copy of a letter from Stuart Popham, senior partner at Canary Wharf based law firm Clifford Chance requesting a meeting to discuss 'Ken's apparent opposition to the continuing success of London City airport'.
The letter was also sent to other big employers in the Docklands, and Mr Waller reports that employers are unhappy in the City as well. He says that London First, the business group, is 'concerned that Ken's argument has been that, once Crossrail is completed, they can all spend an hour and a half getting to Heathrow and 2 hours clearing security rather than travelling 10 minutes up the road and checking in 30 minutes before a flight at 'the more efficient London City.'
Mr Waller's calls over 2 days to the Mayors office to ask if this is still his policy were not returned. He concludes 'Ken has always been keen to keep in with big business, on tall towers, for example. Is he really prepared to oppose the big banks on this? Somehow I doubt it.'
We find the story even more of a paradox. Mr Livingstone is opposed to the expansion of Heathrow, where a new short runway would allow the airport to continue to offer short haul routes, rather than see flights increasingly polarise to more profitable long haul services because of capacity constraints. He is also opposed to the expansion of London City. If he gets his way on both, surely this would be bad for business, and ultimately bad for London.
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