Luton campaigners expose ‘broken promise’ over aircraft noise at Luton
Luton campaign group, HALE, has exposed a broken promise at the heart of the planning conditions which are supposed to control future night noise from Luton Airport. A specific commitment made in the planning application, to reduce night noise limits to 80dB by January 2015 and thereafter to 77dB, has been omitted from the planning conditions attached to the recently passed planning application, so the night noise limit is set to stay at its current 82dB level. There is an overall planning condition to ban noisier classes of aircraft by an unspecified date some time between now and 2028, and to set overall noise limits by aircraft class. But the public consultation and the planning application both presented this “Quota Count” method as being in addition to a reduction in night noise limits, not a replacement for it. Commitments to reduce daytime noise limits are reflected by a planning condition with a definite timeframe, but the unconditional promise to reduce night-time noise limits to 80dB by January 2015 has been dropped. HALE say this is a scandal, and they have written to the Council insisting that the public commitments made by the airport to reduce the night noise limit by 1 January 2015 to 80dB, with a 5-yearly review to bring it down to 77dB, are both enshrined in the planning conditions.
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CAMPAIGNERS EXPOSE ‘BROKEN PROMISE’ OVER AIRCRAFT NOISE AT LUTON
23 December 2013 – HALE ( Hertfordshire against Luton Expansion)
Campaign group HALE has exposed a broken promise at the heart of the planning conditions which are supposed to control future night noise from Luton Airport. A specific commitment made in the planning application, to reduce night noise limits to 80dB by January 2015 and thereafter to 77dB, has been omitted from the planning conditions attached to the recently passed planning application, so the night noise limit is set to stay at its current 82dB level.
There is an overall planning condition to ban noisier classes of aircraft by an unspecified
date some time between now and 2028, and to set overall noise limits by aircraft class. But
the public consultation and the planning application both presented this “Quota Count”
method as being in addition to a reduction in night noise limits, not a replacement for it.
Commitments to reduce daytime noise limits are reflected by a planning condition with a
definite timeframe, but the unconditional promise to reduce night-time noise limits to 80dB
by January 2015 has been dropped.
Andrew Lambourne from HALE said “This is an absolute scandal. We highlighted clearly in
the planning meeting on Friday that a key promise to reduce night noise limits was not
reflected in the planning conditions put forward by Luton Borough Council. The point was
not answered, so we have written to the Council insisting that the public commitments
made by Luton Airport to reduce the night noise limit by 1 January 2015 to 80dB, with a 5-
yearly review to bring it down to 77dB, are both enshrined in the planning conditions.”
“One of the key adverse impacts of this expansion is the disproportionate increase in flights late at night and early in the morning. Councillors at the planning meeting expressed their concerns over the adverse effects of noise on the people of Luton. But they did not have the courage to defer acceptance to allow more time to finalise adequate planning conditions.
“Yet again this underlines our view – and the view of other local Councils and MPs – that
Luton Borough Council has simply not given this planning application the detailed scrutiny it deserves, and it should be called in for thorough independent assessment” he added.
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Supporting background which backs up our claims:
In September 2013, in its revised master plan for public consultation on airport expansion which can be downloaded from http://www.london-luton.co.uk/en/content/8/1171/revised-masterplan.html , the airport operator LLAOL put forward on page 38 six new measures to deal with noise including:
“4.3 Lower night time [noise] limit from 82dB to 80dB in 2018.”
At the same time, the managing director of airport operator LLAOL Glyn Jones said when asked in an interview with the BBC (Look East, 14 September 2012, verbatim transcript at http://www.hale.uk.net/theyre-listening/ ) about people’s fears over increased noise “That’s why we’re putting forward six completely new measures … in order to try to deal with this issue. Noise is a key issue and we’ll deal with noise.”
The master plan received overwhelming public rejection in the consultation – 73% of ordinary members of the public who responded said NO to airport expansion (when the block vote of 612 union members, airport employees and companies supplying the airport is discounted using the breakdown of votes from the Statement of Community Involvement DC19512388-338-1_01_A published by LBC – see the HALE story at http://www.hale.uk.net/majority-oppose-expansion-plans/ for a detailed breakdown of responses).
There was also huge pressure over night noise by campaign groups including HALE, including a rally on the steps of Luton Town Hall: see http://www.hale.uk.net/fantastic-demonstration-in-luton/
As a result of the HALE publicity, LLAOL repeated its promises over night noise limit reductions in a Noise Fact Sheet:
see http://www.london-luton.co.uk/en/content/8/1219/noise-factsheet.html
LLAOL went even further to try to allay fears over night noise its planning application in December 2013 by proposing to bring the timeframe forward by 3 years and adding a new level of protection:
“From 1 January 2015 or within six months of the commencement of development … LLAOL will lower the maximum night time noise violation limit … to 8dB (from 82dB)”.
“LLAOL will review this night time limit (every five years) and … if there are less than 3% of departing aircraft … emitting more than 77dB, the night time limit will be lowered to 77dB.”
(see draft Section 106 document ODC19512388-332-1_01_A which was made available to the public on the LBC website for planning application 12/01400/FUL)
But the planning conditions in the planning document voted on by Luton Borough Council on 20thDec contain no such measures. Condition 11(j) only imposes day-time noise limits:
j) Within six months of the commencement of the development, a progressive reduction in the daytime (0700 – 2300) maximum NVL by the noisiest aircraft shall be implemented, as follows:
(i) 85 dB(A) from the date of the commencement of development
(ii) 82 dB(A) from 1st January 2015
(iii) 80 dB(A) from 1st January 2020
Conditions 11(d) and 11(i) taken together have the net effect of phasing out aircraft classes above “QC2” and bringing overall noise limits down to 79dB for the remainder BUT BY AN UNSPECIFIED DATE
d) The scheme shall include details of the procedures to be adopted and shall include measures with the purpose of phasing out of night time (2300 to 0700) operations by aircraft with a QC value of greater than 1 on either departure or arrival.
i) Within six months of the commencement of development and in accordance with the approved Noise Control Scheme the maximum Noise Violation Limits (NVL) for all aircraft, as recorded by departing aircraft at the fixed noise monitoring terminals, shall be reduced to values which are determined by the noise classification of individual aircraft as follows:
Aircraft Classification on Departure NVL (dBA)
QC 4 (daytime only) 85
QC 2 82
QC 1 79
QC 0.5 and below 76
The key point here is that reaching a night noise limit at or below 80dB requires the move to ban aircraft greater than QC1 to have been completed, but this move – in condition 11(d) – has no date attached. So the conditions do not give the same protection as the original commitment to move to 80dB by 1 Jan 2015.
HALE (Hertfordshire Against Luton Expansion) is a campaign group committed to opposing plans to expand Luton Airport which will export further noise and pollution to Hertfordshire. It represents communities all around the airport.
See www.hale.uk.net