Gatwick public consultation begins on plans to convert standby runway to full use as 2nd runway
Gatwick airport has started a public consultation on its plans to bring its standby runway, just north of the main runway, into routine use for departing aircraft – alongside the main runway. It means having to reposition the centre line of the standby runway, moving it 12 metres north. That then just meets international runway safety standards. The consultation ends on 1st December 2021. Due to the size of the proposal, increasing the annual number of passengers by over 10 million, it is classed as a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project. Therefore Gatwick will next have to apply for a Development Consent Order (DCO) to build and operate the altered runway. This consultation is not the DCO application itself. Gatwick hopes to get consent to start the first stages of the runway process by 2023, starting actual building work in 2024, with the runway finished by 2029. The work is expected currently to cost £500 million – there are extravagant claims about numbers of new jobs and local economic benefit. This growth is in addition to more growth by increased use of the main runway, but that does not need a DCO application. Gatwick’s annual CO2 emissions could rise by a million tonnes. This will be the last full consultation on the expansion.
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Gatwick airport documents about the consultation
https://www.gatwickairport.com/business-community/future-plans/northern-runway/
and
https://www.gatwickairport.com/business-community/future-plans/northern-runway/documents/
and
https://www.gatwickairport.com/globalassets/company/future-plans/northern-runway/2021/summary.pdf
READ AND DOWNLOAD THE CONSULTATION DOCUMENTS
Consultation Summary Document – a summary of our proposals and options
Consultation Questionnaire – includes questions on areas where feedback will help to shape our proposals
- Launch our Consultation Questionnaire – view and complete online
- Download our Consultation Questionnaire – view as PDF
Consultation Overview Document – includes more detailed information. This document sets out an overview of our proposals and approach to managing impacts
and there are other documents at
https://www.gatwickairport.com/business-community/future-plans/northern-runway/documents/
Gatwick says:
We are now consulting on our proposals to bring the existing Northern Runway into routine use alongside our main runway. We are calling our proposals the Northern Runway Project. It is anticipated that by 2038 this would increase Gatwick’s passenger throughput to approximately 75.6 million passengers per annum (mppa), compared to a maximum potential passenger throughput based on the existing runway of approximately 62.4 mppa.
This represents an anticipated increase in capacity of approximately 13.2 mppa.
This level of passenger increase, along with the road improvements needed to support it, means the project is classed as a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP) and we will need to apply for a development consent order (DCO) to build and operate it. A DCO can combine planning consent to develop, operate and maintain an infrastructure project, with other important planning and environmental approvals that would otherwise need to be applied for separately.
Consultation is an important part of the DCO process as it enables everyone to comment on the proposals.
The feedback received, along with further technical work and environmental studies, will inform the development of our proposals ahead of submission of our DCO application to the Planning Inspectorate.
The Planning Inspectorate will then review and examine the application, including encouraging submission of views from local people and other interested parties, before making a recommendation to the Secretary of State for Transport, who will take the final decision on whether or not to grant consent.
For more information on the DCO planning process, please visit: infrastructure.planninginspectorate.gov.uk.
Gatwick Airport: Public consultation begins on £500m plans for second runway
By Christian Fuller chris_fuller11 (The Argus)
9th September 2021
A PUBLIC consultation has begun on plans to bring Gatwick Airport’s emergency runway into routine use.
The proposed project would bring the airports existing northern runway into routine use for departing aircraft alongside the main runway.
The plans, which have an estimated cost of £500m, would see the centre line of the northern runway repositioned further north by 12 metres.The 12-week public consultation will run from September 9 to December 1.
The proposed project would enable dual runway operations, while meeting all international safety standards.
If the consultation is successful, the northern runway could be operational by 2029.
The majority of the construction works associated with the airfield are contained within the existing airport boundary.
The cost of those works is around £500m and will be privately financed, generating approximately 18,400 additional jobs by 2038 and an additional expected £1.5 billion GVA to the region. [Those numbers, from Gatwick, should be taken with a large pinch of salt. AW comment].
Gatwick says the project will be delivered in a sustainable way which helps to achieve the Government’s overall goal of net zero emissions by 2050. [An entirely preposterous statement, concealing the likely extra CO2 emissions of up to a million tonnes per year, with no way yet to remove those from the atmosphere. AW comment]
Gatwick Airport chief executive officer Stewart Wingate said the proposals will help boost their economy, maintain competition within the London market, open up new connections and support a Global Britain.“They will also open up exciting new employment opportunities, create additional jobs and further enable travel to visit family and friends, take a leisure break or foster trade and business links,” he said. [What in fact will happen is more cheap holiday flights, taking money out of the UK, increasing the annual tourism deficit. AW comment].
“Our proposals are forward looking and seek to bring significant benefits for our region.
“I am confident in our future and very pleased to present these proposals for public consultation. We would like to hear views from local residents, and anyone interested in our proposals. I encourage everyone to take time to review our plans and respond by December 1st, 2021.”
Those interesting in responding to the consultation can do so by completing the online consultation questionnaire at gatwickairport.com/futureplans or email comments to feedback@gatwickfutureplans.com.
Alternatively, you can complete a hard copy questionnaire and return it using the FREEPOST address: FREEPOST RTRB-LUUJ-AGBY.
Public feedback must be received by 11.59pm on December 1.
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How Gatwick’s planned airport expansion will be built over five years
By CATHERINE KENNEDY (New Civil Engineer)
10th September 2021
Gatwick Airport has revealed the construction timeline for its proposed dual-runway expansion.
The public consultation on the airport’s plans to bring the existing northern runway into routine use began yesterday.
According to the consultation documents, the core airfield works would take approximately five years from 2024 to 2029, with further works continuing at a lower intensity over the period to 2038.
Indicative construction phasing
The consultation adds: “The timing of the project would be dependent on the timing of securing development consent and the discharge of the associated requirements. The indicative construction programme is based on construction commencing in 2024.
“The programme for the main airfield construction works would be of approximately five years duration, enabling the altered northern runway and taxiways to be complete and fully operational in combination with the main runway in 2029.”
The airport said it owns or is in control of most of the land needed to deliver the proposals, but as part of the DCO application, it “will be seeking powers to compulsorily acquire the additional land where required”.
The consultation adds: “Where land is required, we are committed to reaching agreement with affected landowners for the private acquisition of land wherever possible.”
The consultation comes after Gatwick last month announced plans to reposition the centre line of its northern runway north by 12m to facilitate the expansion.
According to the airport the amendment to the runway centre positioning would meet international safety standards required to let Gatwick operate as a dual-runway airport.
Gatwick Airport chief executive Stewart Wingate emphasised the benefits of the scheme.
Wingate said the proposals “will help boost our economy, maintain competition within the London market, open up new connections and support a Global Britain”.
He added: They will also open up exciting new employment opportunities, create additional jobs and further enable travel to visit family and friends, take a leisure break or foster trade and business links. Our proposals are forward looking and seek to bring significant benefits for our region.
“I am confident in our future and very pleased to present these proposals for public consultation. We would like to hear views from local residents and anyone interested in our proposals.”
The consultation closes on 1 December 2021.
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Gatwick aims to move runway centreline to expand capacity
26 AUG, 2021
BY TIM CLARK (New Civil Engineer)
Gatwick has announced plans to reposition the centre line of its northern runway north by 12m to allow it to be brought into regular use.
The airport officially announced a three-month consultation on the plans for a second runway between September and December this year after stating the project would bring in 18,400 new jobs.
According to the airport the amendment to the runway centre positioning would meet international safety standards required to let Gatwick operate as a dual-runway airport.
Construction details, timescales or costs have not been released for the project however the airport said that the changes would allow it to increase capacity to approximately 75M passengers per year by 2038 and bring in £1.5bn per year in GVA to the region.
As the proposed Northern Runway plans are considered a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project, the airport plans to apply for a Development Consent Order (DCO) to build and operate the scheme.
Other elements of the proposals include improved airport access, highway improvements, as well as additional landscape/ecological planting and environmental mitigation.
Gatwick says that the project proposals are low impact and are in line with Government policy of making best use of existing runways. The project will be delivered in a sustainable way which helps to achieve the Government’s overall goal of net zero emissions by 2050.
Gatwick Airport chief executive officer Stewart Wingate said: “While we are currently experiencing low passenger and air traffic volumes due to the global pandemic, we are confident that Gatwick will not only fully recover to previous passenger levels, but has the potential to continue to grow back into one of Europe’s premier airports.
“Our plans to bring our existing Northern Runway into routine use will not only help to secure that growth but will also ensure many thousands of additional jobs and a vital boost to the economy for our local region.
“We would like to hear views from local people and interested groups on the proposed Northern Runway Project as part of our comprehensive public consultation process and encourage everyone to take time to review our plans.
“Aside from the economic benefits our plans will have, we remain committed to our sustainability goals, and our Northern Runway plans are designed to be a low impact way of unlocking new capacity from our existing infrastructure, much of which is already in place.”
Details of the expansion were first proposed in 2018’s “Master Plan” for the airport, which said that an extra runway would add 55,000 flights a year. The scheme is also environmentally sustainable, in line with Gatwick’s commitment to reaching net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
Recent half-year losses of £245M haven’t dented the airport operator’s expansion plans despite the economic impact of the pandemic.
The forthcoming consultation has been criticised by the Campaign Against Gatwick Noise and Emissions (CAGNE) – an umbrella aviation community and environmental group for Sussex, Surrey, and Kent – which said it didn’t meet government policy of ‘making best use of current facilities’ and would add an extra 1m tonnes of Co2 into the atmosphere on top of the airports current emissions
In a statement CAGNE said: “It is despicable for a company to ignore the emissions that planes in and out of Gatwick produce that is causing grave danger for future generations that will have to pay the price for today’s greed of this leisure airport […]
“Climate change is one of the greatest and most pressing threats facing the modern world and yet Gatwick ignores this fact and endeavours to push forward with a second runway. Constraint of an industry must be the answer if we are to save the planet for future generations.”
The public consultation will run from 9th September 2021 to 1st December 2021.
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