The dream of an airport on Gwent's Coast has appeared at least three times in the last 35 years. Martin Wade looks at the Severnside airport dream that refuses to die.

IT is a scheme which recurs whenever our airports seem unable to cope with passenger numbers.

When enquiries ponder new runways at Heathrow or more airports for London the case for an airport on the Severn Estuary seems to be a persuasive one.

Noise, which places huge restrictions on airports, would not be a problem as jets would fly over water. The distance to London was seen by some as not insurmountable. High speed trains and that other great Gwent transport scheme, the M4 Relief Road would ensure swift movement between runway and metropolis.

So what were those schemes and why were they stopped?

By 1980 growing passenger numbers prompted politicians to examine calls for a third London airport.

A plan to build an entirely new airport at Redwick near Newport was backed by many.

The scheme saw a site partly built on land reclaimed from the sea. The London - South Wales line would have been diverted to service the airport and an M4 relief road would have followed the route of the one currently planned.

It found enthusiastic backing from many different figures in Gwent, including the then leader of Gwent County Council Cllr Graham Powell.

In a debate in the House of Lords, It was said that the Severnside plan could be a "true solution to the problem of a third London airport" and that it was better to site a new airport there than to develop Stansted.

The debate also heard that the people of Gwent, and they and the county and district councils were "clammering to have it there."

Despite that support, concerns that the airport would be 120 miles away from the capital and that there would be problems with the capacity of the Severn tunnel and bridge hampered its support.

The plan was rejected in favour of developing Stansted and so it was consigned to the history books. But it didn't stay there.

By the mid-90s the scheme was back again. In August 1995 Severnside International Airport PLC drew up plans for an airport on the Redwick site after research again showed that London airports would be unable to cope with projected passenger growth over the next 20 years.

They claimed it would be able to accomodate the extra demand by providing flights for 24 million passengers a year and said the exisiting London airports would not be able to cope with the increase in passenger numbers.

The Argus reported in August 1995 how the plans were being presented to the House of Commons and that the £2bn scheme could create 27,000 jobs. The all-party select committe would look at the plans as it considered airport capacity in Britain.

The Argus at the time admitted that the vision of Gwent being at the heart of a national air communications system was "still some way off" but saw a need for a better regional airport for Wales and the West than Cardiff or Bristol, both of which, it noted, had "limited services, facilities and importantly road links".

Sounding more than a note of scepticism, it said: "Whether the airport scheme gets off the ground is doubtful" but that any move to re-inforce the image of Gwent as a forward-thinking country at the start of the millennium is welcome."

In a survey of readers, many views echoed those dividing camps in the debate over the Usk Barrage. Some said the plan would make Wales more acessible to the rest of the world and make it more attractive to businesses wanting to invest here. Many saw big advantages for the tourism industry.

Others thought that there were enough airports in the area already with Cardiff and Bristol and that the scheme would needlessly concrete over swathes of the Gwent countryside, losing it to nature forever.

The plan was rejected by MPs however and Severnside International Airport Limited was dissolved in 1996.

In 2003, the scheme would appear again, more grandiose and ambitious than before. Plans were put forward to the government for an international airport on a man-made island in the Severn Estuary.

The then Monmouthshire County Council was against and there was said to be no support from 18 airlines, including British Airways.

The Government rejected the proposal in its 2003 White Paper, stating that such an airport “would not be financially viable and would not generate sufficient economic or regeneration benefits to merit support in this White Paper”.

The island scheme would rise again. As the UK government again agonised over capacity of the London airports, plans again were published for another Severnside airport to be built on a man-made estuary island.

A causeway would have linked the island to Newport as would an M4 spur and rail lines. A hydrofoil service would have given a water-borne link with Cardiff. It was exciting and futuristic.

It was prompted by the Airports Commission, led by Sir Howard Davies into options for expansion of Britain's airports. The enquiry was to decide if Heathrow would another runway or if extra demand could be met by another airport.

It was set up in September 2012 to see how the UK could remain an international hub for aviation.

Consultancy MSP Solutions proposed that the airport could be built by 2029 on a site between Newport and Chepstow and attract as many as 30 million passengers by 2040.

John Borkowski of MSP, who was a former British Airways executive, claimed that the future of air travel in the UK would depend on fewer regional airports and more large hub airports, partly to reduce the environmental impact but also to aid economic development.

The Institute of Welsh Affairs also spoke in favour of the scheme saying that the Welsh Government’s purchase of Cardiff Airport should only be a stop-gap until a new Severnside Airport was built.

The Airports Commission rejected the plan, as it did the similar scheme to build an airport on an artificial island in the Thames estuary, the so-called 'Boris Island'.

Ultimately what did for the plans were nor environmental concerns. Rather the threat to the two existing airports either side of the Severn at Cardiff and Bristol always hampered any support the plan might have.

So the dream of Jumbo Jets lifting off from a runway on the shores of the Severn never has been realised. But who can tell when artists' impressions will be dusted off and the scheme will be pondered again.