So it seems that Boris and presumably Hillingdon are serious about Heathrows closure.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-28320432

So much so that they have hired architects to design a new 'town'.

Lots of houses with a reduction in employment though ? I wonder if this is a bow shot across Heathrow PLC to stop them making ludicrous demands for more pollution and gridlock in our area ?

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Lets be careful out there !

Boris has always been keen on a new (Estuary) airport but it will take a decision from the very top of Government to shift Heathrow.

That said Boris does harbour further ambition. In the meantime he cements his position with pretty much meaningless case studies which given his role as Mayor he can get the taxpayer to pay for.

Even if say the big decision was taken in the next 10 years to shift Heathrow it wouldn't be a quick process.

The building of the infrastructure of a new airport could take the best part of 20 years, add in the managed transfer plan and drawdown plan for LHR and you could be looking at a generation before it ceased to be a functional airport.

But yes the back channels chat and the laying down of potential plans may well reign in BAA in talking up further expansion.

Boris is a megalomaniac who - like an eccentric Bond villain sitting in a chair with a cat on his lap - seems to want to take over the world.

OK, massage his huge ego by building Boris island airport and link it to London with Boris buses so travellers can use Boris bikes. But use the new airport as an extension to aircraft movement capacity rather than a replacement.

Meanwhile, the Govt airport enquiry rumbles causing more damage to the environment from greenhouses gases as it hungrily burns piles of cash, only to give us what the Govt wanted in the first place

This bit in particular is laughable:

Quote: "About 190,000 new homes, parkland or even a factory could replace Heathrow Airport in west London if it closes, designs unveiled by architects show." -Unquote.

Think about that for a moment. Seriously think about that.

Bulldoze a major international hub airport that directly employs in the region of 40-50,000 people, and indirectly probably provides employment to 2,3 or 4 times that many then replace it with housing for 190,000 people, parkland or "even a factory ". ??

What could possibly go wrong ?

Boris Johnson may be seen by some as a harmless buffoon, but he is far from it.

What a buffoon. As if anyone would tolerate Heathrow being bulldozed, when they've only just spent BILLIONS AND BILLIONS on new terminals, and are still spending on new buildings.

95% unlikely to happen, but some Consultants or Architects somewhere are making money from this hogwash, the after effects of removing all the working, tax paying, law abiding Joe Soaps from the areas adjacent to LHR doesn't bear thinking about.

I sort of agree that the SE needs more air capacity but trying to add to an airport that has take off and landings every 90 seconds already seems lunacy. The people pushing this are the management of Heathrow who obviously have an interest.

Start building another airport somewhere sensible. Close to the coast so one of the entrances is over the sea where noise pollution won't be so much of an issue.

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Lets be careful out there !

Even in 1964 they knew there was a problem ahead:

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Lets be careful out there !

I love old short films like this, not just for the nostalgia but also for what they were thinking then about the future.