The Roskill Commission (formally the Commission on the Third London Airport) was a

UK Government ga, Rialtas a Shoilse gd, Riaghaltas a Mhòrachd , image = HM Government logo.svg , image_size = 220px , image2 = Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom (HM Government).svg , image_size2 = 180px , caption = Royal Arms , date_es ...

Commission charged with looking into finding a site for a new airport for

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. Chaired by High Court judge Eustace Roskill, it sat from 1968 to 1970 and published its report in January 1971. Since the 1950s, London's primary passenger airport had been at

Heathrow Heathrow Airport (), called ''London Airport'' until 1966 and now known as London Heathrow , is a major international airport in London, England. It is the largest of the six international airports in the London airport system (the others bei ...

, with a second one at

Gatwick Gatwick Airport (), also known as London Gatwick , is a major international airport near Crawley, West Sussex, England, south of Central London. In 2021, Gatwick was the third-busiest airport by total passenger traffic in the UK, after H ...

. The Commission's aim was "to enquire into the timing of the need for a four-runway airport to cater for the growth of traffic at existing airports serving the London area, to consider the various alternative sites, and to recommend which site should be selected." Roskill's initial list of 78 sites was reduced to an intermediate list of 29, before detailed consideration of four short-listed locations: *

Cublington Cublington is a village and one of 110 civil parishes within Aylesbury Vale district in Buckinghamshire, England. It is about seven miles (11 km) north of Aylesbury. The village name is Anglo Saxon in origin, and means "Cubbel's estate". ...

Foulness Foulness Island () is a closed island on the east coast of Essex in England, which is separated from the mainland by narrow creeks. In the 2001 census, the usually resident population of the civil parish was 212, living in the settlements of Ch ...

Nuthampstead Nuthampstead is a small village and civil parish in North East Hertfordshire located a few miles south of the town of Royston. In the 2001 census the parish had 139 residents, increasing to 142 at the 2011 Census. Nuthampstead was historically ...

Thurleigh Thurleigh is a village and civil parish in north Bedfordshire, England. History Excavations have shown evidence the locality was occupied in the Iron-Age, Roman and Saxon periods. In Domesday of 1086 the Middle English orthography as to bot ...

. The Commission recommended that a site at

near

Wing A wing is a type of fin that produces lift while moving through air or some other fluid. Accordingly, wings have streamlined cross-sections that are subject to aerodynamic forces and act as airfoils. A wing's aerodynamic efficiency is expres ...

in Buckinghamshire (to the north-west of London) should be developed as London's third airport. The UK government rejected the Commission's proposal for Cublington, but accepted a dissenting report by a member of the Commission, Colin Buchanan, which recommended that a new airport should be developed at Foulness (later known as

Maplin Sands The Maplin Sands are mudflats on the northern bank of the Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in ...

) in Essex. An

Act of Parliament Acts of Parliament, sometimes referred to as primary legislation, are texts of law passed by the Legislature, legislative body of a jurisdiction (often a parliament or council). In most countries with a parliamentary system of government, acts of ...

was passed – the ''Maplin Development Act 1973'' – that paved the way for a

Thames Estuary Airport A potential Thames Estuary Airport has been proposed at various times since the 1940s. London's existing principal airports, Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted, are each sub-optimally located in various ways, such as being too close to built-up area ...

at Maplin Sands. However, the airport proposal was shelved after the

1973 oil crisis The 1973 oil crisis or first oil crisis began in October 1973 when the members of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC), led by Saudi Arabia, proclaimed an oil embargo. The embargo was targeted at nations that had supp ...

, and plans for a new third airport were replaced by smaller-scale redevelopment of

Stansted London Stansted Airport is a tertiary international airport serving London, England, United Kingdom. It is located near Stansted Mountfitchet, Essex, England, northeast of Central London. London Stansted serves over 160 destinations acro ...

, a site not short-listed by the Roskill Commission. In 2012 the UK government established the independent

Airports Commission The Airports Commission was an independent commission established in September 2012 by the Government of the United Kingdom to consider how the UK can "maintain its status as an international hub for aviation and immediate actions to improve th ...

to look again at the future of London's airports.

Panel

The members of the seven-man Commission were: * Hon. Mr. Justice Roskill * Colin Buchanan, Professor of Transport,

Imperial College of Science and Technology Imperial College London (legally Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom. Its history began with Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, who developed his vision for a cu ...

* Alfred Goldstein, Partner in R. Travers Morgan & Partners, Consulting Engineers * Arthur J. Hunt, Principal Planning Inspector, Ministry of Housing and Local Government * David Keith-Lucas, Professor of Aircraft Design, the College of Aeronautics, Cranfield; and President of the Royal Aeronautical Society * Arthur William Knight, Finance Director, Courtaulds Limited *

Alan Walters Sir Alan Arthur Walters (17 June 1926 – 3 January 2009) was a British economist who was best known as the Chief Economic Adviser to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher from 1981 to 1983 and (after his return from the United States) again for fi ...

, Professor of Econometrics and Social Statistics,

University of Birmingham , mottoeng = Through efforts to heights , established = 1825 – Birmingham School of Medicine and Surgery1836 – Birmingham Royal School of Medicine and Surgery1843 – Queen's College1875 – Mason Science College1898 – Mason Univers ...

(later Cassel Professor of Economics in the University of London).

References

{{reflist

External links

Maplin: the Treasury and London's third airport in the 1970s
1971 in the United Kingdom Airports in the London region Transport policy in the United Kingdom Transport in the United Kingdom Aviation in the United Kingdom Aviation and the environment Public bodies and task forces of the United Kingdom government Proposed airports in the London region

Panel

See also

References

External links