COMMITTEE AGAINST EXPANSION OF AMPUGNANO AIRPORT – SIENA


Translation of a letter to the Italian Minister for the Environment, Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio (November 2007).  It contains a good summary of the situation

 

 

Committee against Expansion of Ampugnano Airport – Siena

ampugnano@gmail.com

fax 0577 347839

6th November 2007

 

Hon. Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio

Minister for the Environment

Rome

 

 

Dear Sir,

      The Committee against Expansion of Ampugnano Airport – Siena wishes to inform you about what is happening in our area.

      The small airport at Ampugnano (municipality of Sovicille, Province of Siena, Tuscany;  about 8.5 km from Siena) has existed since the 1930s mainly for local purposes.  All attempts to make it a national or international airport have failed for lack of users and due to the vicinity of the airports of Florence (70 km) and Pisa (110 km) which meet the needs of the population and tourists.  Moreover, the European Union recently announced a grant to promote civil aviation from the military airport of Grosseto (90 km), which already has a working runway of 2400 m.

      In August 2007 we became aware that the international investment fund Galaxy was interested in financing expansion of the airport, at the request of shareholders in the airport company Aeroporto di Siena S.p.a., namely the bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS), the Siena Provincial Administration, Siena Council, Siena Chamber of Commerce, Sovicille Council and Aeroporto di Firenze S.p.a., which in October 2007 sold most of its shareholding to MPS.

      The investment fund Galaxy is specialised in private equity operations in the field of infrastructures, especially transport.  Its capital is held by the Italian Cassa Depositi e Prestiti S.p.a. (40%), the French Caisse des Depots et Consignations (40%) and the German KFW (20%).  The expansion project, sustained by MPS and certain political parties in the ruling coalition and opposition, is completely at variance with regional and national transport planning guidelines and is situated in an area of European importance for environmental conservation, rich in historical and architectural treasures and renowned for its beautiful landscape.  The political parties in favour of expansion of the airport are: DS, Margherita, Forza Italia;  those against are:  Verdi, Rifondazione Comunista, Comunisti Italiani, Socialisti, Italia dei Valori, Lega Nord Toscana and Liste Civiche di Siena.  The Committee has the support of Italia Nostra, WWF, Legambiente, Rete dei Comitati per la Toscana di Asor Rosa, Associazione Filo d’Erba, Farfalle Rosse, Attac Italia, Comitato per la Salvaguardia della Montagnola Senese, Associazione Grilli parlanti di Siena. 

      The geographical area directly and indirectly affected by expansion of the airport includes the Montagnola Senese and the valleys of the Farma and Merse rivers, which constitute an unusually large natural area:  more than 36,000 hectares of forest, alluvial plains, grassland and traditional agriculture.  It includes four Regional Nature Reserves, a State Reserve and four Sites of Community Importance (SCI) under the European directive “Habitats”.  The area is among the twenty most representative of the biodiversity of the Mediterranean ecoregion.  The plain of Rosia, site of the airport, overlaps the aquifer Luco, a major southern Tuscan reserve of groundwater that supplies most of the drinking water of the city of Siena and parts of its province.  The Municipality of Sovicille also has the largest number of medieval sites of historical, artistic and architectural interest in all of Italy. 

      The project is just the first stage of a series of expansions and envisages:

·         lengthening the runway from 1393 m to 1500 m to allow bigger planes to land;

·         paving/construction covering 157,000 square metres for aprons, hangars, garages, fuel depots, storage structures and hospitality;

·         350,000 passengers in 2012 with more than 70 flights/day on average and 490,000 passengers in 2020 with at least 90 flights/day, which will have an environmental impact equivalent to that of a vast industrial area.

 

The Committee sustains that the project will severely damage the integrity of the landscape and the quality of life in the SCI “Montagnola Senese” and “Alta Val di Merse”;  it will be associated with unsightly constructions and infrastructure, loss of landscape features and destruction of biodiversity.  It will pose enormous risks for the Luco aquifer and expose the population to unbearable noise and harmful emissions such as combustion products and particulate.  The operation is so senseless and dangerous as to seem ruled by movements of national and foreign capital for reasons different from those publicly declared;  it proposes an airport only 70 km from that of Florence, 110 km from that of Pisa and 90 km from that of Grosseto;  the area is served by dangerous narrow roads (the Florence-Siena and Siena-Grosseto) and by a slow, single track, post-war-vintage railway.

      As Minister for the Environment, the Committee trusts that you will be interested in what is happening.  Knowing your sensitivity to such topics, we urge you to intervene to save an area in which centuries of human work have created a style of cultural, natural and architectural development known and appreciated throughout the world.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

The Committee against Expansion of Ampugnano Airport – Siena

4th November 2007