Growing opposition to Luton Airport plans
A large number of groups and organisations opposed to the further expansion of Luton Airport met to confirm and co-ordinate their opposition to proposals to significantly increase airport capacity. They discussed key areas of opposition including increasing noise affecting households and schools, the problems of unregulated night flights, the plans to add 100 extra flights and 16,000 passenger journeys a day, and key concerns over safety and pollution. Their joint statement reaffirms the strength of opposition: “Far from having received a positive reaction from local people as is claimed by the airport operator, the expansion plans are meeting growing opposition from local communities already blighted by noise, pollution and congestion caused by Luton Airport. Community groups and campaign groups are united in their determination to oppose these ill thought out expansion plans until they are once again defeated”.
1.5.2012 (HALE – Hertfordshire Against Luton Expansion)
Groups opposed to the further expansion of Luton Airport met together yesterday 30th April 2012 to confirm and coordinate their opposition to proposals to significantly increase airport capacity.
Attendees included representatives from Chiltern Society, LANAG, LADACAN, Airport Watch, Friends of the Earth, Save Our Skies, HALE, Redbourn Airport Opposition and Breachwood Green Airport Opposition.
The groups discussed key areas of opposition including increasing noise affecting households and schools, the problems of unregulated night flights, the plans to add 100 extra flights and 16,000 passenger journeys a day, and key concerns over safety and pollution.
The joint statement issued at the end of the meeting reaffirms the strength of opposition: “Far from having received a positive reaction from local people as is claimed by the airport operator, the expansion plans are meeting growing opposition from local communities already blighted by noise, pollution and congestion caused by Luton Airport. Community groups and campaign groups are united in their determination to oppose these ill thought out expansion plans until they are once again defeated”.
Andrew Lambourne from HALE, the hosts for the meeting, confirmed that the sentiment of the attendees was summed up in one simple phrase: “We’ve all had enough.”
HALE is a campaign group set up to represent the interests of Hertfordshire communities threatened by the proposed expansion of Luton Airport.
HALE has 3 main objectives:
STOP highly controversial expansion plans which will see the airport double its operational capacity, becoming bigger than Stansted or Manchester airports
COMMIT the airport operator to resolve the long running issue of noisy night flights passing directly over rural communities
COMMIT the airport operator to be a better neighbour by resolving the problem of year on year increase in aircraft noisiness
LADACAN
Another key group opposing expansion of Luton airport is LADACAN (Luton and District Association for the Control of Aircraft Noise)
LADACAN has now submitted its response to the Airport operator’s so-
The consultation on the “Master Plan” is open until 25th April after which LLAOL (London Luton Airport Operations Ltd) plans to apply for planning permission for its proposals.
When is a Master Plan not a Master Plan?
When it’s a Luton Master Plan!
As with its last attempt in 2005, London Luton Airport Operations Ltd (LLAOL), has published a “Master Plan” for expansion of the Airport which fails to meet the Government’s specification for such documents. A main requirement of a Master Plan is to provide a 25-
Government guidance says: “We would anticipate that, in the case of most airports, master plans will address the following ‘core’ areas:
- forecasts
- infrastructure proposals
- safeguarding and land/property take
- surface access initiatives
- impact on people and the natural environment
- proposals to minimise and mitigate impacts”
While the first three of these are addressed in the “Master Plan”, the last three are deferred until the planning application is submitted. However, this does not mean we cannot get some idea of the increase in noise to expect if the expansion is permitted as the annual number of flights will rise from 100,000 in 2011 to about 150,000. As aircraft are expected to get bigger rather than quieter, that’s a 50 per cent increase in disturbance. Bad news indeed.
LADACAN’s response to Luton Borough Council’s expansion plan
LADACAN’s response to Luton Borough Council’s inadequate and misleading consultation can be found here.