THE announcement of local job losses coincides with the Sustainable Development Commission call for a review of the 2003 White Paper on air transport. The information in that White Paper would have been composed at a time when it was not difficult to sel

THE announcement of local job losses coincides with the Sustainable Development Commission call for a review of the 2003 White Paper on air transport.

The information in that White Paper would have been composed at a time when it was not difficult to sell to a Government dedicated to full employment and economic growth the need for airport expansion.

I may not see the need for 13,000 new jobs and a town of 5000 new residents on our doorstep, but we are still going to need a steady flow of additional jobs, housing and services locally; also a more environmentally sustainable way of living.

Saffron Walden is a backwater with poor access. We have seen countless enterprises come and go. Assessment of what this will mean for the future, for the coming generations is of the utmost urgency.

I hope that any future government will be as concerned for the well being of the silent majority. They are people and should not be treated as the pawns of party politics.

C Gilbey, Birdbush Avenue, Saffron Walden