:01:23. > :01:26.And in the South East: As expansion plans for Lydd Airport
:01:26. > :01:36.prepare for take-off, what will be the environmental cost of the
:01:36. > :01:36.
:01:36. > :31:42.Apology for the loss of subtitles for 1806 seconds
:31:42. > :31:46.$NEWLINE I'm Natalie Graham and this is the Sunday Politics in the
:31:46. > :31:50.South East. Coming up in the next 20 minutes:
:31:50. > :31:52.Commercial saviours or High Street slayers? We find out what the
:31:52. > :31:56.highest planned growth of supermarkets in England will mean
:31:57. > :31:59.for the region. Joining me in the studio today is
:32:00. > :32:02.the all female team of Caroline Lucas, Green Party MP for Brighton
:32:02. > :32:10.Pavilion and Tracey Crouch, Conservative MP for Chatham and
:32:10. > :32:18.Aylesford. I want to stop with a subject close to both your hearts,
:32:18. > :32:21.the community worker done by football clubs. This week Brighton
:32:21. > :32:23.and Hove Albion has been honoured in Parliament for its charity work
:32:23. > :32:26.with the unemployed. It also helps with education, health and crime
:32:26. > :32:28.initiatives. No-one would argue they're not doing good work, but
:32:28. > :32:31.how much should we allow organisations like football clubs
:32:31. > :32:34.to take over these areas of our lives? Tracey, it's Big Society,
:32:34. > :32:36.just what David Cameron wants. Football is one of the most popular
:32:36. > :32:40.sports in our communities. They're often heavily involved in their
:32:40. > :32:42.local communities and it is great to see what Brighton and other
:32:42. > :32:49.clubs are doing to support all aspects of society. What Brighton
:32:49. > :32:52.has done is fantastic to reach out to have more disadvantaged
:32:52. > :32:55.communities. It is really important to get as many in people -- many
:32:55. > :33:02.people involved as possible. Your club Spurs interested in doing the
:33:02. > :33:06.same. Spurs already do quite a lot so they are pioneers, but they have
:33:07. > :33:11.a lot more money than the other football clubs. He was supportive
:33:11. > :33:15.of the work done in your constituency, Caroline. I am hugely
:33:15. > :33:19.proud of our community on behalf of the football club. Football can
:33:19. > :33:23.reach parts of society that perhaps more traditional methods cannot. If
:33:23. > :33:26.you're dealing with issues like men's help, you can get a message
:33:26. > :33:30.across that would be holler in other ways. They have done
:33:30. > :33:35.brilliant work recently with the unemployed, reaching out to the 60
:33:35. > :33:38.local businesses across Brighton and Hove. Very quickly, any
:33:38. > :33:43.concerns that they are doing the work on behalf of the public
:33:43. > :33:46.sector? What they need to do is extra on top of what the government
:33:46. > :33:50.and the public sector provide. That is what they are doing, showing
:33:50. > :33:56.that there is a real addition and at tea they can bring to the table.
:33:56. > :33:58.We should be celebrating that. Thank you very much.
:33:58. > :34:01.It's bang in the middle of an internationally significant
:34:01. > :34:04.conservation area, but at the moment Lydd Airport doesn't have a
:34:04. > :34:06.huge impact on its surroundings: it's quiet and only carries 500
:34:06. > :34:10.passengers a year. That could all change though, if the government
:34:10. > :34:12.allows it to expand - Lydd's owner has big plans to become a major
:34:12. > :34:15.aviation gateway which can carry two million passengers a year.
:34:15. > :34:18.Those in favour say those plans will bring economic hope to a
:34:18. > :34:21.desperately poor area, but opponents say it will harm a unique
:34:21. > :34:24.landscape. We're told air traffic will rise massively in the South
:34:24. > :34:34.East in the coming years so can we afford to put the environment first
:34:34. > :34:40.
:34:40. > :34:44.in this instance? Helen Drew Lydd Airport by the South Kent
:34:44. > :34:48.coast. The number of passengers using it has fallen to around 1,000
:34:48. > :34:53.a year, but there are plans to expand it despite strong opposition.
:34:53. > :35:03.When we went to visit it this week, the airport was emptier than usual.
:35:03. > :35:08.There was a deserted check-in and But one plane took to the skies and
:35:08. > :35:11.it was ours. The pilot let me take the controls and we looked over the
:35:11. > :35:15.area. The airport has one of runway which
:35:15. > :35:21.is mainly for private use. There are plans to extend it by around
:35:21. > :35:24.300 metres to accommodate larger commercial jets flying to various
:35:24. > :35:28.European destinations. It expanded, the airport could see
:35:28. > :35:31.half a million people a year going through its doors, and those in
:35:31. > :35:38.favour say this would provide a crucial boost to the local economy.
:35:38. > :35:48.The area around his more deprived than the southeast average. Will
:35:48. > :35:53.
:35:53. > :35:58.expansion come at a price? This is the first site in the UK off Harron.
:35:58. > :36:02.The airport has to take public safety seriously and so their
:36:02. > :36:06.management of bird risk is highly important. This will involve a
:36:06. > :36:10.number of techniques, like physically scaring the birds to
:36:10. > :36:14.keep them away, which could have a negative impact on bird life in the
:36:14. > :36:18.area. The environmental objections are
:36:18. > :36:21.not the only one against expansion. In the structure is also an issue.
:36:21. > :36:25.London Ashford airport is the official name and there is a high-
:36:25. > :36:31.speed train going from St Pancras to Ashford in 38 minutes, but it
:36:31. > :36:35.takes that long to drive the 60 miles along country lanes. We took
:36:35. > :36:40.shelter from the rain to hear some of the concerns. You look at any
:36:40. > :36:46.other airport in the area, there are dual-carriageway is in front of
:36:46. > :36:50.the door, they're not rail stations, Gatwick, Luton, Stansted, all of
:36:50. > :36:55.them have the same thing in common: The big load running up to it and
:36:55. > :37:01.rail so they can get passengers in. The only infrastructure proposal
:37:01. > :37:06.that they have associated with Lydd Airport is always more roundabout
:37:06. > :37:10.about 50 metres down the road. They are not talking about putting in
:37:11. > :37:17.any job carriageways. To call it London as but airport is one of the
:37:17. > :37:21.greatest comedies of our time. -- London Ashford.
:37:21. > :37:24.The number of journeys to airports is predicted to double. The south-
:37:24. > :37:28.east is expected to take most of that even though the government has
:37:28. > :37:32.ruled out expansion account -- at Gatwick until 2019 and a third
:37:32. > :37:37.runway at Heathrow. Extra capacity needs to come from somewhere, but
:37:37. > :37:41.one local says it does not have to be from here. This is a ludicrous
:37:41. > :37:47.proposition, a ludicrous a location for a regional airport, within
:37:47. > :37:52.three miles of a power station, within two miles of a major
:37:52. > :37:56.military base. We have a regional airport which is massively under
:37:56. > :38:01.utilised so what is the point, when you already have an existing
:38:01. > :38:05.airport in the area? The local authority support the expansion. Be
:38:05. > :38:10.granted initial approval even though its own plan an officer
:38:10. > :38:13.recommended refusal. -- a planning officer. An official recommendation
:38:13. > :38:18.will be made this month to the government about whether to back
:38:18. > :38:21.the development. But are such plans flying in the face of accessibility
:38:21. > :38:27.concerns and the environmental importance of a unique and
:38:27. > :38:30.protected area? Helen Drew reporting. Joining me
:38:30. > :38:39.from our Dover studio is the Chief Executive of the Kent Channel
:38:39. > :38:44.Chamber of Commerce Peter Hobbs. Why it will passengers come to Lydd
:38:44. > :38:48.Airport and use the facilities? has been an airport for well over
:38:48. > :38:52.50 years so it is already on the map. We are not creating anything
:38:53. > :38:57.new. It is accessible. I listened with interest the comments made by
:38:57. > :39:01.your viewers and clearly, with the high-speed rail we have now got
:39:01. > :39:07.good access to London, and of course it is a good road journey,
:39:07. > :39:13.although there are new -- no job carriageways. It is 30 minutes by
:39:13. > :39:19.train to London ash -- London Ashford. It is not ideal, is it?
:39:19. > :39:23.That is an exaggeration. The point is that Bromley is fairly isolated
:39:24. > :39:29.as a rural community and clearly, there are no immediate development
:39:29. > :39:33.plans for increased road capacity. But it is a chicken and egg
:39:33. > :39:37.situation. If the airport expands, it we can therefore put a sound
:39:37. > :39:41.case for better roads, better infrastructure to be produced.
:39:41. > :39:43.Surely that should be part of the initial application? Ideally we
:39:43. > :39:48.would put this question to the council but they were unable to
:39:48. > :39:52.provide us with a guest. Why have they not put in a road or railway
:39:52. > :39:57.as part of the plans? That is what you get with other airports.
:39:57. > :40:01.have to understand that this expansion plan is not immediate. We
:40:01. > :40:05.will not see 5 billion passengers appear from nowhere. It is a
:40:05. > :40:09.gradual expansion planned over a number of years. But you have got
:40:09. > :40:12.500 passengers a year at the moment! The owner wants a two
:40:12. > :40:16.million. 5 million has never been mentioned before, but to get any
:40:16. > :40:21.expansion, you need the infrastructure. If you are going to
:40:21. > :40:28.benefit economic Klee, you need to do it properly. Of course you do. -
:40:28. > :40:32.- benefit economic plea. The airport has done their research,
:40:32. > :40:36.they have made good investments in the airport infrastructure, they
:40:36. > :40:41.are prepared to put a new terminal building in, prepared to spend
:40:41. > :40:45.money. Why do we asked them to build a dual carriageway? That is
:40:45. > :40:49.not the old -- the role of the airport, it is the role of the
:40:49. > :40:53.public authorities to improve the road infrastructure to meet the
:40:53. > :40:58.need. Another question I would like to put to you about the range of
:40:58. > :41:01.flights they are proposing, they are saying 1,000 nautical miles. We
:41:01. > :41:07.estimate that will get you to Barcelona, but not to Malaga.
:41:07. > :41:11.Commercially, is that the right way to go? I am not an airline expert.
:41:11. > :41:16.To be frank, there does seem to be a great demand for more regional
:41:16. > :41:20.airport capacity in this country. We have just seen last week,
:41:20. > :41:24.Southend Airport announce expansion plans. Ironically yesterday, we
:41:24. > :41:29.heard that Manston airport is likely to be sold because there is
:41:29. > :41:32.a need for more infrastructure investment there. What I can say,
:41:32. > :41:36.and certainly the support I have given of the last five years, is
:41:36. > :41:42.that the current owners at Lydd Airport have made an investment.
:41:42. > :41:48.They are committed to a commercial expansion over five or six years.
:41:48. > :41:53.We will have to leave it there. Please stay there for us.
:41:53. > :41:58.You know the area well and you want to see this go-ahead. Are you not
:41:58. > :42:01.concern that the infrastructure is not their? I grew up close to live
:42:01. > :42:05.and I think the proposals for expansion are some think that could
:42:05. > :42:10.bring a huge benefit to the area. I hear what you are saying about the
:42:10. > :42:15.infrastructure, but we are talking about one flight per hour. Any kind
:42:15. > :42:21.of consideration that this is going to clock up all the surrounding
:42:21. > :42:24.roads... I think it will provide much-needed jobs in a -- an area
:42:24. > :42:28.that is particularly employment poor at the moment. This
:42:28. > :42:33.regeneration could bring huge benefits to the local area.
:42:33. > :42:38.Caroline, Green Party MP, I am assuming that you're not too
:42:38. > :42:43.enthusiastic about this? Way or not, no. There are the obvious
:42:43. > :42:47.environmental concerns, be pollution, the climate change
:42:47. > :42:54.arguments. It will be in the middle of a protected area for birds and
:42:54. > :42:58.biodiversity. There is also an economic argument as well. When you
:42:58. > :43:04.consider that aviation nationally is subsidised to raise huge extent,
:43:04. > :43:08.up to �11 billion, because aviation, when you fly it you're not paying
:43:08. > :43:12.for the VAT on fuel, not paying for duty on fuel, that is a massive
:43:12. > :43:18.subsidy equivalent to around �360 for every family in Britain. If you
:43:18. > :43:26.want to have jobs, do not subsidise them by this. I was going to pick
:43:26. > :43:30.up on the climate aspects because the airport has been in lit longer
:43:30. > :43:40.than the RSPB century. It is a tiny airport and we are not talking
:43:40. > :43:40.
:43:40. > :43:50.about building a new airport in the Thames Estuary. This is about a
:43:50. > :43:52.relatively small expansion in comparison to... This area has a
:43:52. > :43:57.four European designations protecting it. If we cannot pretend
:43:57. > :43:59.that, but what can we protect? goes back to my earlier point, that
:43:59. > :44:05.the airport was there before those environmental designations.
:44:05. > :44:12.Actually, they have been sympathetically encouraged into the
:44:12. > :44:19.area. A lot of the reconsideration of the plans had happened. Natural
:44:19. > :44:26.England has dropped its objection to the expansion plans. 40,000
:44:26. > :44:31.objections have been put in against these expansion plans. To suggest
:44:31. > :44:36.that an airport catering for 500 passengers will cater for two
:44:36. > :44:43.million it is a different ball game. I'm sorry, I will have to leave it
:44:43. > :44:46.there. Thank you very much to our guests.
:44:46. > :44:49.A quick way of creating jobs is by building a supermarket and more of
:44:49. > :44:53.those are being developed in the South East than anywhere else in
:44:53. > :44:56.England and Wales. It sounds like good news for anyone out of work -
:44:56. > :44:59.Tesco said last week it's creating 20,000 new jobs across the country
:44:59. > :45:02.and the Prime Minister welcomed the announcement, saying it would make
:45:02. > :45:05.up for job losses in the public sector. Meanwhile plans to open new
:45:05. > :45:07.supermarkets in Kent and Sussex aren't proving that popular - only
:45:07. > :45:13.last week 1,00 people marched against a proposed Tesco Metro in
:45:14. > :45:19.Herne. Tracey, is it always a good thing to open a new supermarket?
:45:19. > :45:23.On the whole, yes. It doesn't surprise me that in the south-east,
:45:23. > :45:28.we do have an expansion of supermarkets because we have a huge
:45:28. > :45:32.growth in housing. People want to go to the big supermarkets, often
:45:32. > :45:36.for convenience. I do have some sympathy for the local independent
:45:36. > :45:40.traders and the impact on them. But I think that the supermarkets
:45:40. > :45:44.should work with local producers to get as much local produce into our
:45:44. > :45:54.local supermarket. I know you are concerned about independent traders
:45:54. > :45:55.
:45:55. > :45:59.as well, Caroline. It becomes a vicious cycle because what the
:45:59. > :46:04.supermarkets do it is stuck at the heart of the other shops on the
:46:04. > :46:09.High Street. Date stop with selling food and then it will be flowers,
:46:09. > :46:12.newspapers, books, so there is no life left for the other shops. It
:46:12. > :46:16.is not surprising that you end up at the supermarket because there
:46:16. > :46:22.are no other options. What about Tracey's idea of making
:46:22. > :46:26.supermarkets stock local produce? It is a good compromise if you only
:46:26. > :46:30.want one shop in your high street! If you look at somewhere like
:46:30. > :46:34.Brighton, what makes it such a wonderful place and why it is
:46:34. > :46:37.driving and other places are not is precisely because of its particular
:46:37. > :46:43.offer around individual retailers. That is what people love about it.
:46:43. > :46:48.If you basically have a complete modernisation of the same thing on
:46:48. > :46:53.every store... That has not happened in Brighton yeah. Because
:46:53. > :46:58.we had a protest and managed to stop quite a lot of them. If you
:46:58. > :47:01.look -- are talking about local produce, let's have that, but they
:47:01. > :47:06.are likely to have better relationships with shops than with
:47:06. > :47:12.supermarkets. Supermarkets have regulations in place regarding the
:47:12. > :47:19.size of their produce, but local suppliers simply cannot do that.
:47:19. > :47:22.know you are supportive Param could --, Caroline, of this. It is
:47:22. > :47:26.something that the government is looking at seriously. There has
:47:26. > :47:34.been a suggestion that it may be included in the forthcoming Queen's
:47:34. > :47:37.Speech. I think it is a good idea. There is a supermarket in my
:47:37. > :47:42.constituency that sells apples from China. It doesn't make sense that
:47:42. > :47:47.we in Kent are one of the largest producers of apples. I don't want
:47:47. > :47:51.more of them, I want to seem local produce being sold in local
:47:51. > :47:56.supermarkets. There should be some kind of distance or radius where we
:47:56. > :48:01.can encourage that. Why local produce in local supermarkets, why
:48:01. > :48:04.not in shops? We have to look at the reality, the fact is that
:48:04. > :48:07.people are time poor and when they go out with their families on
:48:07. > :48:14.Saturday afternoon, they want to go down the aisles as quickly as
:48:14. > :48:19.possible. I don't think they do, they look miserable! Let us look at
:48:19. > :48:24.the number of jobs that get lost because of the supermarkets.
:48:24. > :48:27.makes me cross when a neck number of jobs is pronounced and they
:48:27. > :48:31.never look at the number of jobs that will be squeezed out of the
:48:31. > :48:40.economy as a result of them coming and nor the fact that the jobs are
:48:40. > :48:50.part-time. They'll also low-paid. We have just got started! So we
:48:50. > :49:00.
:49:00. > :49:06.David Cameron announced plans for a new stalking law after a campaign
:49:06. > :49:16.from I woman in Cambridge world. -- Tunbridge Wells.
:49:16. > :49:17.
:49:17. > :49:21.Tax cuts were called for for the South-east commuters could face
:49:21. > :49:29.higher peak-time rail fares. The government thinks it will encourage
:49:29. > :49:39.us to travel at quieter times. But there was one happy rail
:49:39. > :49:40.
:49:40. > :49:43.passenger, as the Queen started her Diamond Jubilee talk. Nations do
:49:43. > :49:47.have values and they should be proud of them and be willing to
:49:47. > :49:50.express that prideful stop talking of pride, Brighton and Hove council
:49:50. > :50:00.agreed that the pride parade can be held again this year after doubts
:50:00. > :50:07.
:50:07. > :50:11.I think Charlie is bang on the money on tax cuts. It is an
:50:11. > :50:14.important measure for people on low incomes and will deal -- to do a
:50:14. > :50:18.great deal of good to take all these people out of the lower tax
:50:18. > :50:24.thresholds. He is spot on. Will we get an announcement soon in the
:50:24. > :50:28.budget? I hope we get it soon. Caroline, I imagine you support
:50:28. > :50:30.that? I do support it, but I'm concerned about the number of
:50:30. > :50:34.people who are struggling on benefits who are not necessarily in
:50:34. > :50:41.work but are having a hard time. I wish the government would look at
:50:41. > :50:45.that as well. Let's move on to Brighton pride. This year, it is
:50:45. > :50:50.safe. At every year we have behind -- problems behind the scenes. In
:50:50. > :50:54.needs sorting out, doesn't it? is only in the last year's where
:50:54. > :50:57.financial difficulties have come to the fore. They have now got a way
:50:58. > :51:01.forward in terms of having to charge. In makes a more stable into
:51:01. > :51:04.the future. I am delighted that this time around, there is a
:51:04. > :51:09.consortium that has come together to make sure that it will happen.
:51:09. > :51:13.It is a fantastic moment of celebration for the City and makes
:51:13. > :51:17.the important point that we need to do to tackle homophobia. He will be
:51:17. > :51:21.there, what we wear? I wouldn't miss it, and you have to wait until
:51:21. > :51:27.the day! We will find out when August comes.