Council Claims That Airport Plans Ignore Noise Impact

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Government claims that the 3rd runway will not extend the noise nuisance.

Government claims that a third Heathrow runway can be built without extending noise nuisance throughout south and west London are simply not credible, the 2M Group said today.

Transport secretary Ruth Kelly wants to add another 230,000 flights year at the airport by 2020 - taking the total up to 700,000. An interim increase of 60,000 movements would be achieved by allowing the two existing runways to be used for landings and take offs.

This will mean an end to the current relief experienced at 3pm each day when aircraft switch runways. Wandsworth Council believes that the extra capacity is equivalent to building a new airport the size of Gatwick.

Today's announcement assumes that future changes in aircraft engine design will make it possible for the extra flights to be added without increasing the area around Heathrow affected by noise. The minister has ignored the findings of her own noise report which took six years to compile. This found that increased numbers of flights added to residents' noise misery.

Civil servants have been working with BAA officials for many months to produce models showing how both air pollution and noise levels can be contained. The information used in the process has been kept secret from local authorities.

Wandsworth Council leader Edward Lister (pictured right), speaking on behalf of the 2M group said:

"The Government is asking us to trust that by the time the runway is built there will be an entirely new fleet of quieter aircraft flying.  They are so hell-bent on expansion that they are not stopping to count the environmental costs. They will not even take into account their own noise study which they had promised would be used to underpin government policy.

"The more flights there are, the more people get annoyed. People living under the flightpath will be outraged by this lack of basic regard for their quality of life.

"The Government is instead content to hide behind a noise study completed 25 years ago. To rush out these plans for an extra 230,000 flights without taking account of the most up to date research on attitudes to noise is reckless.

"We are used to broken promises on Heathrow. We were told in 2003 that T5 could be operated without adding extra flights as aircraft were going to get bigger. We were also assured that a fifth terminal would avoid the need for a third runway. Expanding Heathrow may be good business for BAA but that's small comfort to the two million people living around the airport who will pay the environmental price."

The ANASE study which was published earlier this month showed that people become significantly annoyed at an average noise level of 50 decibels - compared to 57 decibels previously.

The transport department uses the 57 decibel contour - drawn around Heathrow - to measure shifts in noise impact. The area affected runs from Windsor to Barnes - a population of 258,000. If the line is drawn at 50 decibels this takes in a much larger area running from Slough and Maidenhead to Clapham Common and Battersea, with a population of more than 2 million people.

The Government has refused to hold exhibitions explaining the expansion plans in areas outside the contour. This means people in Battersea, Putney, Fulham, Chelsea and Ealing will all be excluded even though they will suffer increased noise from the additional flights.

Justine Greening MP for Putney-said parts of London would not be worth living in: "People will not want to bring their children up in a place where every 90 seconds a plane drowns out their conversation."

November 22, 2007