Pleiade Associates are architects and urban designers based in Bristol, United Kingdom.
Pleiade Associates are the Project Masterplanners for the LOX Study.
The expansion of airport capacity in the UK is fraught with the potential for conflict and the debate over it remains in the thrall of discordant irrationality on many sides. Yet it is perverse that any proposed solution should seek to entrench former planning errors, many of which are plainly damaging to both economic and environmental interests. Rather government should seek to minimize the adverse effects whilst maximizing the benefits of growth. Some will argue that no such expansion should happen, but here we are only concerned with the real prospects which may achieve a resolution, not with the bleak prospect of the UK becoming a "green and unpleasant land" blighted by economic and social decline.
It is our firm contention that, after London Heathrow, LOX is demonstrably the optimal location for such an airport (we are not alone in this, see: White Paper - Review of London Oxford Airport, DfT, 2003 and The Future of Air Transport, DfT, 2003. Section 11.115). The London Oxford Airport Study (LOX) sets out the "Best Practicable Environmental Option"* for the resolution of the impending crisis in airport capacity in the South East Region of the United Kingdom: it would also yield the greatest economic benefits to the region and the United Kingdom, excepting the problematic proposal for a third runway at London Heathrow. The principal and enduring impediments to all such projects seem to be political myopia and timidity, even allowing for an 'environmental' zealotry which is the unwitting proxy ally of the existing airports.
* According to an ancient Greek proverb, the least bad [choice] is the best (μὴ χείρον βέλτιστον). In that spirit, LOX is offered as the 'least worst' option. Yet the lesson of history is not auspicious: since the Roskill Commission† (1971), RUCATSE (Runway Capacity to Serve the South East) Studies (1993), SERAS (South east and east of England Regional Air Services) Studies (2002) a succession estuarine follies have diverted attention from a real solution. The latest member of this herd of White Elephants is "Boris Island".‡
† See: 'A sadly mismanaged affair.' David McKie, 1973. Croom Helm. ISBN 0 85664 096 4.
‡ Note to the Mayor of London:
⁂ White Paper: The Future of Air Transport, December 2003.
Chapter 11: South East Region: Alternative proposals
11.115 So far as the London Oxford proposal is concerned, it is accepted that the location of the airport in relation to centres of demand would mean that it could be well used without the need for market intervention by the Government.…
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❖ The LOX Study: Report documents.
The implications and benefits of the LOX Project are discussed in a reference publication on integrated transport:
Christopher J Blow (2005). Transport Terminals and Modal Interchanges. London. Architectural Press – Elsevier.
ISBN: 978-0-7506-5693-1
ISBN10: 0-7506-5693-X
The LOX project is included in a free sample chapter (pdf) from the book.