Anti Gatwick campaigners accuse airport chiefs of cheap leaflet (and free coffee) publicity stunt
Campaigners fighting aircraft noise have accused Gatwick bosses of trying to buy them off with a free cappuccino and glossy printed pamphlet. The leaflet, dropping through the letterboxes of thousands of homes in a 20 mile radius of Gatwick airport, is a blatant PR stunt in the face of a 5 fold increase in complaints about noisy planes. It is edition one of “AirMail” – airport news for residents. It boasts of Gatwick’s developments and “activities in the local community” including grants to community groups, local residents discount parking rates and free coffees. Chairman of the High Weald Aviation Action Group, Richard Streatfeild said Gatwick needs to listen, not make cheap gestures. “A free cappuccino is not going to make up for hundreds of aircraft over your home area when people are trying to spend quality family time and enjoy the countryside. They are obviously upping their PR game. They are being told by the CAA that they must involve the local community with their decision making” …what they need to do is “take into account the feedback they are getting from the local community.” Martin Baraud from GON said: “They can send out all the brochures they like but at the end of the day they are part and parcel of creating noise ghettos through the garden of England.”
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Anti Gatwick campaigners accuse airport chiefs of cheap leaflets publicity stunt
22.6.2015
By Kent and Sussex Courier Green below
CAMPAIGNERS fighting aircraft noise have accused Gatwick bosses of trying to buy them off with a free cappuccino and glossy printed pamphlet.
They say the leaflet, dropping through the letterboxes of thousands of homes in a 20 mile radius of Gatwick, is a blatant PR stunt in the face of a 5 fold increase in complaints about noisy planes.
The leaflet, edition one of “AirMail” – airport news for residents – boasts of the East Sussex’s airport’s developments and “activities in the local community” including grants handed to community groups , local residents discount parking rates and free coffees.
But chairman of the High Weald Aviation Action Group, Richard Streatfeild said Airport chiefs needed to listen not make cheap gestures.
“A cappuccino is not going to make up for 250 planes over your home on a Sunday afternoon when you are trying to spend quality family time and enjoy the countryside,” he said.
“They are obviously upping their PR game. They are being told by the CAA (Civil Aviation Authority) that they must involve the local community with their decision making.
“But what we need them to do is take into account the feedback they are getting from the local community.”
The Airports Commission is due to publish its findings on a second runway at either Gatwick or Heathrow in the next few weeks but anti-aircraft noise campaigner, Martin Barraud said anger was directed at the airport now – because of a change to flight paths.
Gatwick Obviously Not spokesman, Mr Barraud said the narrowing of the path was “heaping untold misery” on thousands and was likely to get worse with the landing arc moving over Tunbridge Wells and Crowborough.
“They can send out all the brochures they like but at the end of the day they are part and parcel of creating noise ghettos through the garden of England,” he said.
“We are all getting impaled on the spear of Gatwick’s avarice – we really are. And the CAA which should be acting as regulators are increasing people’s misery.
The Courier asked Gatwick for a response but we are awaiting a reply.
*Are you one of the thousands who have received a Gatwick newsletter? Do you think it is a genuine attempt to inform or a PR stunt in the face of growing hostility? Let us know what you think on facebook or by emailing reporter debbie.king@courier.co.uk.
They mean the Long-horned bee, (Eucera longicornis). Details about it at https://www.buglife.org.uk/sites/default/files/Long-horned%20bee_0_0.pdf
Reasons for decline The Long-horned bee requires large areas of flowery habitat. It is has been badly impacted by the 97% loss of flower-rich grassland during the 20th century. It is particularly vulnerable to overgrazing and poor management of grassland.
[And Gatwick’s runway means concreting over hundreds of acres of meadow and grassland].
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From the free leaflet ……………. (laugh or cry, according to preference ………..)
