Key critic of Farnborough airport silenced by an ASBI, while the airport submits expansion plans

For four years, Colin Shearn, a 62-year-old retired corporate executive, led the Farnborough Noise Group, a watchdog for locals worried about the operations of Farnborough airport, the UK’s busiest private jet airfield. Then, one day in August, police came knocking at his door. They claimed he had conducted an “aggressive and relentless campaign against Farnborough airport” and he was accused of “bombarding” the airport and relevant authorities “with endless questions about air traffic”, while “adopting a belligerent and aggressive style, distorting or misrepresenting a point of view to suit his agenda”. He was issued with an “antisocial behaviour injunction (asbi)” – the successor to the asbo. He was ordered to stop “causing any harassment, alarm or distress, nuisance or annoyance to any person” in Surrey or Hampshire, or face jail or a fine, or both.  Just after he was silenced, Farnborough announced that it planned to double weekend flights. Its latest planning application, now submitted to Rushmoor borough council, gives the airport a ceiling of 70,000 flights a year, including 19,000 at weekends, and allows for heavier aircraft to be used.
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Farnborough airport’s biggest critic silenced as expansion plans continue

UK’s busiest private jet airfield announced plans to double weekend flights weeks after campaign group chair received injunction

By Damien Gayle (Guardian)   @damiengayle
Wed 3 Jan 2024

For four years, Colin Shearn, a 62-year-old retired corporate executive, led the Farnborough Noise Group, a watchdog for locals worried about the operations of Farnborough airport, the UK’s busiest private jet airfield.

Then, one day in August, police came knocking at his door.

Shearn, they claimed in a 92-page document, had conducted an “aggressive and relentless campaign against Farnborough airport”. He was accused of “bombarding” the airport and relevant authorities “with endless questions about air traffic”, while “adopting a belligerent and aggressive style, distorting or misrepresenting a point of view to suit his agenda”.

With just seven days to prepare for a court hearing, he was unable to persuade a judge to deny Surrey police’s application for an antisocial behaviour injunction (asbi) – the successor to the much-derided asbo. He was ordered to stop “causing any harassment, alarm or distress, nuisance or annoyance to any person” in Surrey or Hampshire, or face jail or a fine, or both.

Three weeks later – just as Shearn, its chief critic, was silenced – Farnborough announced that it planned to double weekend flights.

Farnborough is the UK’s oldest aerodrome, and was the site of Britain’s first-ever powered flight. But for most of its 120-year history, it operated as a military and civil aviation research centre. Experimental jets ripped through the skies over Hampshire – but during daylight hours only, and not at all at weekends.

Then, 30 years ago, after the military deemed it surplus to requirements, the government agreed to Farnborough’s redevelopment for business aviation. Initially it began operations in 2000 with 28,000 flights a year, 2,500 of those at weekends and on bank holidays. In 2011, the government overruled the local councillors to increase the number of flights to 50,000 a year with 8,900 at weekends, but maintained weight limits that restricted heavier aircraft from using Farnborough.

Its latest planning application, submitted to Rushmoor borough council last week, gives the airport a ceiling of 70,000 flights a year, including 19,000 at weekends, and allows for heavier aircraft to use the airport.

Farnborough airport says the changes are necessary to meet increased demand for business trips. It claims its proposals will support 4,100 jobs and add £470m to the UK economy by 2040. And it insists its emissions are forecast to meet the UK’s net zero targets.

Many of the airport’s neighbours are sceptical. In October, at a community consultation event in Fleet, a Hampshire commuter town 45 minutes from London, Paul Whelan, from nearby Farnham, said his main concerns were about noise and pollution from the increased air traffic.

“I think some of these plans just sound like a bit much,” he said. “We have noticed a big increase in numbers [of flights]. We’ve lived in our house for the last 40 years. It really makes you look up.”

There are wider concerns. Just this summer, the government’s Climate Change Committee, which advises ministers on net zero goals, reiterated there should be no airport expansion until the aviation industry started to cut its CO2 emissions. Flying made up 7% of the UK’s total carbon emissions last year. And Farnborough’s critics say its emissions profile is particularly egregious.

Jules Crossley, a Rushmoor borough councillor, said: “The whole point of Farnborough’s expansion is to increase the cap on weekend flights.” She claimed that although the airport sold itself as a centre for business aviation, many of its flights were for leisure purposes, and were taken by a small number of wealthy people.

Her claim seems to be supported by research. A recent study by the campaign group Possible found that half of Farnborough flights in the busiest summer months headed to the Mediterranean, rather than business locations, while a quarter of winter flights headed for Alpine destinations. In September a service launched specifically to shuttle dogs and their owners to Dubai and back.

“Business aviation today, that just means private,” Crossley said. “It’s about the convenience of the customer profile, it’s not that every flight is for business reasons … It’s about facilitating the richest people to have a journey with the most convenience possible.”

It is an industry enjoying massive growth. One in 10 departures from UK airports are now private jet flights, according to Possible. Planes using Farnborough airport carry an average of only 2.5 passengers per plane and 40% of aircraft fly empty. This means that, per passenger mile, those passengers are 20–40 times more polluting than a passenger doing the same journey on a commercial flight.

A Farnborough airport spokesperson said flight numbers had increased over two decades due to market growth and displacement from other London airports, and insisted it was “at the forefront of sustainability” as “one of only three UK airports to be certified as level 4+ carbon neutral for those emissions in its direct control”.

The spokesperson conceded that many flights were for leisure, with increases to holiday destinations during the summer and winter holiday seasons, but insisted 80% in total were “either directly or indirectly related” to business matters.

“Whilst Farnborough airport’s emissions per passenger are approximately 10 times greater than those of a commercial airport, its economic output per passenger is substantially higher,” the spokesperson said. “This is consistent with the high proportion of business and corporate flights that use the airport.”

Shearn’s asbi has stopped him engaging directly with Farnborough airport and has forced him to step down as the chair of Farnborough Noise Group.

“I can’t challenge the Civil Aviation Authority any more,” Shearn said. “I can’t write to the CAA. I can’t write to the airport or the Farnborough Aerodrome Consultative Committee any more … It just limits everything I do. I can’t challenge anything, in case I upset or annoy anyone.”

His silencing has turned into a local scandal. Local newspapers have published reports on it, and a former police and crime commissioner for Surrey has written in support of him. Crossley, who also sits on the Farnborough Aerodrome Consultative Committee (FACC), told the Guardian she saw no reason for Shearn’s explicit ban from contacting the group.

“I was speaking to a longstanding member of the FACC … and he and I were agreeing that the other members of the FACC haven’t ever been consulted about this at all, and haven’t even been notified,” Crossley said.

“None of us see Colin as a nuisance. Everybody’s tempers can flare but I have never seen him lose his temper … He informs people. Sometimes there is disagreement about the information, because it is like a lot of science, some of it is not fixed.

“On the whole he’s very knowledgable and I think that frightens people.”

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/jan/03/farnborough-airports-biggest-critic-silenced-as-expansion-plans-continue

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Rushmoor Borough Council

Consultation begins on airport expansion plans.  November 2023

The public consultation on plans to increase the number of flights and weekend flying at Farnborough Airport began on Monday (13 November).

It comes after Farnborough Airport Ltd submitted a planning application to Rushmoor Borough Council to increase the number of flights from 50,000 to 70,000 a year and double the number of weekend flights from 8,900 to 18,900, and to allow heavier aircraft to use the airport.

Residents who want to find out more details and to comment on the proposals should go to our webpage.

Printed copies of the documents are now available to view at the council offices in Farnborough, and Aldershot and Farnborough libraries.

The closing date for comments is midnight on Sunday 17 December, which is in line with statutory timescales. If this date is extended, this will be set out on the council’s website.

The council is expecting a significant number of public comments and will be unable to reply to them.

It is also writing to around 30,000 households in Rushmoor, who are under the flight path, and will also be consulting with neighbouring authorities, as well as advertising the application on site notices around the airport and in local newspapers.

It is expected that the council will consider the planning application in March.

Rushmoor Borough Council’s Cabinet member for Planning and Economy, Councillor Gareth Lyon, said: “We know these plans will generate significant interest among our residents and lots of people will want to have their say on these proposals. I would encourage everyone to study the plans closely and give us their thoughts over the next few weeks, so we have a good measure of public opinion.”

 01252 398 744 

https://www.rushmoor.gov.uk/your-council/news-and-your-views/council-news/news-releases/november-2023/consultation-begins-on-airport-expansion-plans/
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