Thames Estuary Airport a major International hub at Cliffe which would link in with the HS1 line through Kent to St Pancras. The Cameron government was committed to a full Aviation Review and a scoping study was released in March 2011. The "Marinair" proposal was put forward in the 1990s, in which an airport would be built on an offshore artificial island in the Thames estuary, north east of the Isle of Sheppey. When the proposal was put forward again in the government's 2002 consultation, it was rejected on the grounds of insufficient information and prohibitive expense. The Marinair plans had been developed
Canvey Island been discharged into the river by the means of seven sluices (later known as Commissioners Dykes). The completion of the work saw a considerable number of the Dutch engineers take land as payment for their work, and consequently settle on the island. Approximately one-third of Canvey's streets have names of Dutch origin. The coast of Canvey Island was host to the Chapman Lighthouse as briefly described in Joseph Conrad's novel "Heart of Darkness". It is believed that the peril of the mudflats below such shallow waters off the Canvey Island coast prompted the Romans to devise some form of beacon