Your views shared - Heathrow night flights
Here are some of your views on Heathrow night flights within the borough
1. The night flights are very disruptive - not only can I not sleep with the windows open, but I have to use earplugs. Even at that, most mornings I wake at 4.10am as the planes start their approach for landing. Why can't they change the flight path regularly so we get some peace at some stage? Perhaps they would like to fund triple glazing windows for everyone affected? Please continue to fight for us on this issue. From Orla Kelly [Thursday 1 November 2007]
2. It seems like the Heathrow flights have been getting earlier of late. The noise is very disruptive - there seems to be no respite. Why do flights have to come in always from the West? I do not understand why at the very least we get them half the time - they can cite winds but I am sure that in this day and age a different flight path can be worked out 3 days a week (ideally on weekends). Given this increased frequency, I look forward to the next election, as hopefully at least one party will take a strong position on this.
3. I hope the council will lobby hard to prevent further night flights, and any increase in air traffic over the borough. In the Brook Green area, which is by no means worst hit, the noise is intolerable already on certain days.
4. I'm fed up with being kept awake at night and woken early in the morning. Sometimes there is barely a 3 hour respite. To increase night time landings at Heathrow is inexcusable. Surely NO planes should be flying over London in these very uncertain times. Of course nothing will be done until there is a catastrophic accident.
5. There are already flights between 4.30am and 6.00am. And from 6.00am there are flights every 1.5 minutes. I have lived in this area for 35 years and it has got progressively worse. Thank you for adding your considerable voice to the citizens' campaign.
6. BAA and the Government wish London and Heathrow to increase as a European Hub for economic benefit. This greed is unsustainable in the face of climate change and unnecessary noise nuisance caused by ever larger numbers of Europeans transiting here. If the Government thinks that increasing UK citizens flying is sustainable, more local airport facilities should be provided. This would also provide a far greater contribution to passenger safety as the most dangerous part of the journey is the trip to and from the airport. Shortening this would increase air passenger safety far more than the current crisis the authorities have caused.
7. I live in Parsons Green. The peaceful time between end of night flights and the start of the very early morning flights is just too short for me to have had any decent sleep since moving into Parsons Green 20 months ago. Because one never knows whether there will or will not actually be flights over Fulham, sleeping with a window open is NEVER an option because if the flights do start about 4.30, then I'll be awakened immediately they start.
8. The constant noise of planes on some days is bad enough, but night flights really are not acceptable and there seem to be quite a few these days. They are most disruptive.
9. There seems to be a direct flight path over my house and the flights start at 4.30am in the morning. This means the end of my sleep. I get up every morning very tired, lacking energy and not fit for work. I have to sleep with my windows closed at all times, which does make for a very uncomfortable night. The planes fly too low and the noise pollution is unacceptable. Please continue to fight for our nightly peace.
10. The first plane flies over Fulham at 4.30am, the last one at 12.30am, that gives us 4 hours sleep! Please do not let them make it an even shorter night! I do not understand why they cannot change the flight path so that if planes fly overhead at 4.30am they stop at 10pm, or if they stop after midnight they only start again at 6.30am over the same spot. At least then we would have 6 hrs sleep. There are now no silent gaps between the planes during the morning and 4-5pm peak times, it is unbearable and most of us, if we could, would just leave the borough.
11. The flight noise over Fulham and Hammersmith is already so bad that I sleep with earplugs in all the time. I do not understand how it can be allowed to let these planes fly over a residential area as early as 4.30 in the morning?! The noise is not soft either, it is really quite loud, and there is no escaping it. I will never get used to this I am afraid.
12. Night flights at 4.30am alwayswake me up and I find it difficult, if not impossible, to go back to sleep. This has a terrible effect on me for the rest of the day. Night flights tend to go on for several days before the flight path is changed. It really is impossible, and unfair to those of us below the flight path.
13. We live in south Fulham, close to the river, and the very early morning flights are particularly disruptive to us. For older people [we're both in our late fifties] it is often harder to get back to sleep, especially when you know you soon have to get up for work. Both my husband and I feel it is having a detrimental effect on our health. God forbid it should get worse. One expects traffic noise and one tries to be tolerant - this is the city after all - but there must be very few who are not annoyed by this level of nuisance. If it were caused by neighbours one would be able to take them to court.
14. I would like to commend the council for taking action against night flights. Flight routes should be more varied altogether, with approaches which leave people with more noise-free days. Please continue to do all you can to alleviate the burden of noisy flights.
15. I strongly agree with the Council’s effort to avoid more night flights, it is already a nightmare as it is. Flights are starting at 5am and going on till midnight Even if you close the windows it is very disturbing and it makes you think of buying a house elsewhere.
16. The plane noise now seems to be directed over Hammersmith rather than the river. Any increase in noise is unacceptable for the area. As residents we pay our taxes and they should be used to better our lives, not worsen them.
17. The noise in Hammersmith and Fulham is diabolical and it would help to reduce it if night flights were banned. It would also be safer, as night flying must be more dangerous in poor/no visibility. Noise could also be reduced by encouraging public transport and reducing the use of cars, lorries etc. Sunday used to be the only quiet day, but now it is noisy every day and every night. Reducing the noise would also reduce air pollution.
18. No night flights between 10.00pm & 8am. Resist further expansion and increase in flight numbers. Keep lobbying on behalf of residents.
19. I wish to express my disagreement with the night flights. I live in Fulham & find the present night flights disturb me hugely & I do not want to be here any more. Please let me know if there is any petition I can sign.
20. Fulham is plagued not only with Heathrow flights, but also with helicopter flights from Battersea, and on occasion helicopter night-flying. Everyone in the area knows that there is already a 'wake-up' 4.30-4.45am arrival on the Heathrow flightpath over Fulham, which seems to be ignored by BAA when it makes claims that flights do not start until 6.00am. If the Government means to introduce night flights, whatever citizens think, then it will employ every trick in the book (like giving BAA advanced information) to justify its action. The 2M group is an excellent idea, but it needs serious funds to match BAA and other interested parties, who will no doubt be committing £millions to their campaign. The 2M group will need very sophisticated and original research and analysis, not only into the physical aspects of night-flights, but also the legal and commercial claims. For instance, how and where can we challenge a 'public interest' claim which will ultimately be put by the Government? How serious are the claims of continental cities overtaking London as dominant centres for business, if flight volumes do not increase? How strong is the existing forensic evidence of sleep deprivation; and is it enough, ultimately, to support the claim of abuse of human rights? Why not improve the attraction of other airports for business travel? And so on. These questions have probably all been answered, but is there enough sound evidence and intellectual rigour in the answers?
