Discussion

MR M. J. FROST, Metra Consulting Qroup Ltd ' The choice of an airport site is one of the most important decisions for the community'. It might seem churlish to challenge Mr Goldstein on this point; however, it may be worth putting airports in perspective by noting the many issues of social policy which involve vastly greater sums of money, e.g. the London Motorway Box (Ringway 1) costing £2000 million, the kind of housing costs mentioned in Paper 21, questions of education, health and so on. Few of these problems have been analysed with as much rigour as airports, largely because this is a relatively new field with little prejudice and relatively large amounts of money available for studies. The independent work done on Roskill cost well over £1 million, whereas the total independent studies on the Greater London development plan, of which the Ringway 1 forms only a small part, probably do not exceed £50 000.