Requete seeks to revisit debate on longer runway

Last month the States agreed not to conduct further investigations into extending the usable area of runway by reducing the runway end safety area, following advice from the director of civil aviation.

But now a group of deputies have submitted a requete in a bid to look at the possible business case and benefits of extending the runway to 1,700m.

Among them is long-time runway campaigner Jan Kuttelwascher and States’ Trading Supervisory Board president Peter Ferbrache.

The requete calls for the States to direct Economic Development to present a business case and cost-benefit analysis for the extension of the runway to achieve a length of at least 1,700m.

It is suggested that there is a deadline for the investigations to be completed by May 2020.

The requete calls for Policy & Resources to make available the necessary funds to carry out this work, should they be required. This would not exceed £360,000.

While the States has rejected suggestions of doing any further investigations into extending the runway inside the airport boundary, the requete want to look at what could be done if land outside the boundary was used.

Deputy Kuttelwascher said a 1,700m runway could be created if land to the east of the runway was used.

A study would need to be carried out as to what could be done about La Villiaze Road.

He added that he would not want a runway longer than 1,700m, as it would take the runway into a different code.

‘It’s the sweet option, with the lowest cost for maximum benefit,’ he said.

‘It would put us on par with Jersey, so we could have easyJet and Ryanair.’

While the requete suggests £360,000 being put aside, Deputy Kuttelwascher said he did not anticipate them needing that much money.

‘I’ve been in contact with staff at Economic Development and half the work for this has already been done in relation to engineering costs,’ he said.

‘But what we still need to look at is the costs vs benefits. A lot of that is collation information that is already in the public domain.’

With a deadline of May 2020, Deputy Kuttelwascher said he fully expected the matter to become an election issue, so the public could decide what they wanted.

He has campaigned for years for the improvements, but said he could end his campaign depending on the outcome of the suggested work.

‘There would be no point continuing if this was negative,’ he said.

‘There are good benefits, but the question is whether there is a strong enough case to do it. We will see how it goes.’

The other signatories of the requete are Deputies Jeremy Smithies, Joseph Mooney, Marc Leadbeater, Jennifer Merrett and Victoria Oliver.

It could be debated at the December meeting.