LETTER: Community group investigates issues

A second runway at Gatwick may make economic sense to the head of WSCC but it does not make environmental sense to bring all the traffic to a congested, polluted area of the South but then perhaps they do not have to go to work each day via the congested M23 and M25 nor suffer Redhill hospital! Not everyone works at Gatwick!
By The Newsroom
Published 8th Aug 2013, 15:58 BST
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Westerham (Kent) are detailed already at being concerned about the noise from the M25 with pollution ponds being built to take the lead from the road and this is all before Gatwick expands!

But environmental and infrastructure studies were not a consideration before this rushed WSCC vote. It would make far more economical and environmental sense to expand Goodwood aerodrome than Gatwick; lots of free air space and lots of vacant land for mass house building!

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The owners of Gatwick (Global Infrastructure Partners), the airlines and other businesses, do not live in the area or even the UK.

They will not have to deal with the daily fallout of expanding such a monster, it will be us taxpayers, us voters who put councillors, and MPs, into a position to represent our views, and we should have been consulted before such a vote took place.

As to bigger planes being quieter; will the airlines be looking to invest huge amounts of money to fly these on short haul flights to Europe for ‘holiday maker’ prices?

The noisiest planes are the large Virgin, Monarch and BA, we tend to ignore the screeching EasyJet and small BA planes, and we are not on the flightpath!

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I quote Gatwick noise complaints’ department ‘There are no such routes leading to final approach (of aircraft) for inbound aircraft; neither are there any noise limits or fixed heights’.

‘Arrivals come into UK airspace in a random pattern’ so how are they going to control the huge number of flights that would be coming to the UK if Gatwick expands?

The answer surely has to be they can’t! And then there are the flights that have to ‘go around’.

It’s like having constant thunder every five minutes during take off, flights some 2,799ft high and 429m from my home and I’m not on the flightpath. God help us when we become under the fightpath.

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And from the Gatwick complaints’ department, it would seem that they can only report the disturbances ‘entered into our Noise and Track Keeping system’ and have little power over the airlines, ‘we continually work with the airlines’, or air traffic control who use ‘adverse weather conditions’ as an excuse or ‘safety aspects to be considered when making a decision to re-route’.

The GACC are an independent self-funding community group that conduct independent reports into claims made about how Gatwick expanding would affect us residents and they should be congratulated for the time and efforts they make on our behalf.

SALLY PAVEY

Mayes Lane, Warnham

Related topics:M25M23