Dear Editor, I am writing having recently read an article in the local press about Paul Kehoe the new CEO of Birmingham International Airport. In it he states that should the third runway at Heathrow be abandoned then with “better rail links Birmingham would become the third runway “.

Or in other words “London Elmdon” Airport.

BIA currently wish to extend their own runway and a Planning Application is due to be decided upon by Solihull Council before Christmas.

If the application is approved Mr Kehoe will be emboldened to press ahead with his “London Elmdon” dream.

So now is the time for local MPS and Councillors to follow the lead of their south east colleagues (in opposing the Heathrow expansion ) and oppose the BIA extension plan!

Should Mr Kehoe achieve his aim of transforming BIA into Heathrow’s third runway there would be a sharp increase in aviation activity, more traffic in the air and on the road with a resulting drop in air quality and increase in noise levels !

The Climate Change Bill will be passed by Christmas and it does include aviation emissions.

Extending an airport in our region is not the message to send out if we are serious about curbing our Greenhouse Gas emissions.

A P Welch,
Eastlands Road, Moseley.

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I have a deep sense of being misled by PM

Dear Editor, I must admit to not being a fan of Gordon Brown; his many Budget speeches over the years on his fiscal policy did not always convince me of his prudence.

He always delivered his speech and its detail at a very fast rate and sometimes failed to mention other details like the 10p tax band. I don’t think for one moment that a British Prime Minister would train himself to talk fast and miss out

details on such an important subject deliberately to mislead us!

Listening to Gordon Brown in Parliament a few days ago, I again had this deep sense of being misled; it was impossible to discern anything of the detail of how he was going to get us (sorry lead us) out of the recession, except for a promise of something in our Christmas stockings.

It seems he is to continue to dig his (or is it ours) deep black hole and continue to “borrow” billions from the IMF at undeclared interest rates to give tax breaks to some, wasting billions of borrowed money just as he has wasted trillions of his benefit system for some, even reaching down to babies with 500 baby bonds. All of this and he has nothing left in our account and now he is to borrow even more.

How are we going to pay this back? Is Brown going to embarrass Great Britain and its people with bankruptcy in front of the whole world? Will the world have any empathy for us in our predicament, the very place that Brown is reaching out to at the moment for succour and excuses? What will be the point of Christmas tax cuts to people without jobs who will not be able to pay tax out of their benefits?

Brown is still blaming America for our financial troubles when he knows we were already in trouble before their house repossessions started. If America is to blame, should we be sending the bill to the White House?

He may retire to Scotland but his incredibility will remain in England for many years,

D Wathen,
Salford Priors, Nr Evesham.