Night flight noise misery could soar
Wednesday October 14, 2009
A new noise plan for Heathrow airport contains no proposals for reducing disturbance from night flights.
The European Noise Directive requires EU nations to draw up noise ‘action plans’ for major airports.
Responsibility for drafting Heathrow’s plan has been given to the airport operator BAA by the British Government and BAA need to submit their plan to the Secretary of State for Transport by the end of November.
But Hammersmith & Fulham (H&F) Council is calling on the Transport Secretary to reject BAA’s proposals as they fail to address local residents’ concerns over night flight noise. Instead the council is demanding that plans be brought forward to cut back on early morning flights arriving before 6am.
The council also wants new controls in the hour between 6-7am which is expected to see more take-offs as the airport switches to more long haul routes. There are also fears that changes in airport operations could lead to more departures between 11.30pm and midnight.
Cllr Nicholas Botterill, H&F Cabinet Member for Environment, says: “The BAA plan fails in its central duty to reduce noise for local residents. The Government’s current night flight controls come to an end in 2012, so you would expect BAA to be looking at this issue now, especially as their five year action plan runs until 2015.
“The Government currently controls night flights by setting limits on the number of movements and total noise aircraft are allowed to make during the night. The council is concerned that as older aircraft such as the Boeing 747s are replaced with less noisy alternatives, such as the 777 and new A380 aircraft types, the Government and BAA will see this as an opportunity to allow an increasing number of early morning flights while arguing that overall noise levels are not getting any worse.”
The night quota period runs from 11.30pm to 6am. Currently around 16 flights land at Heathrow between these hours – with the first of them flying over the south of the borough at around 4.30am.
Cllr Botterill continues: “The council has raised a number of concerns about the lack of effective measures to tackle aircraft noise and its impacts. The Transport Secretary has no alternative but to reject the plan in its current form, which fails to follow either his own guidance or the requirements of the EU legislation.”
The council and fellow members of the 2M Group opposed to Heathrow expansion have long campaigned for night flights to be phased out. In January the Government signalled the go-ahead for a third runway and sixth terminal at Heathrow despite concerns from the cross-party coalition of councils, residents’ and green groups.
93 per cent of H&F residents said they were against expansion in a poll of more than 4,000 people last year. A fully operational third runway will allow the number of flights to rocket from 480,000 to 702,000 by 2030 – equivalent to building a new airport the size of Gatwick in the most densely populated part of the country.
But in August, the High Court ruled that campaigners can present their case against the plans for a third runway and extra night flights. H&F Council is among a core group of six local authorities that will now help to support a legal challenge, which is expected to be heard before Christmas.
Cllr Botterill concludes: “Millions of Londoners already suffer from aircraft noise and pollution and we can only expect that situation to become even more intolerable if a third runway is ever built.”
The 2M Group is an all-party alliance of 24 local authorities concerned at the environmental impact of Heathrow expansion on their communities. The group represents more than five million people. For more information about the campaign group, visit www.2MGroup.org.uk (opens new window).
