LETTER: Lib Dems defying national policy

First she is defying the Lib Dems’ national policy and even though the need for extra airport capacity by 2020 is still not proven she welcomes the possibility of over 120,000 new residents (including their families) to provide employment at Gatwick Airport. She suggests that ‘we would not then build north of Horsham’ when in fact it has already started.

With the current massive house building schemes underway and those proposed to the north and west of Horsham, do we really need this huge surge of people to the area creating an unbearable strain on the local infrastructure and resources?

The local main roads and motorways are already heavily congested and that situation can only get much worse. In addition more schools and medical facilities will be required which I’m sure Gatwick will not fund.

She talks of the need for new jobs but where are the unemployed to come from, not the local area I would suggest. Would it not be better to increase airport capacity where there is high unemployment, in the Midlands or the North or even Stansted.

As a lifelong Lib Dem voter I am now having to rethink what I want from a political party and I am not sure that I can vote for anyone who does not put the needs and views of the local constituents before big business, particularly where those businesses are foreign owned. It seems to me that a second runway at Gatwick will not bring prosperity to an already reasonably prosperous area and it may have the opposite effect.

Many people I have spoken to are considering moving away before a house price slump and those migrating to the area may not be able to afford the current price levels.

BILL SORRELL

Friday Street, Warnham