Campaign group releases 'noise report' about London Gatwick plans to bring Northern Runway into more routine use - airport responds

Gatwick is about to enter the examination stage of the application to the Planning Inspectorate to bring the Northern Runway into routine use.

A London Gatwick spokesperson said: “Our Northern Runway plans would deliver 14,000 new UK-based jobs and inject £1 billion into the economy of the South East every year. Our plans would also benefit many communities across the South East by providing new economic and business opportunities as well as benefits for tourism and international trade.”

But the Communities Against Gatwick Noise Emissions (CAGNE) noise report asks several questions to the management of Gatwick Airport and challenges their ‘hard sell’ idea that two runways will be quieter than current Gatwick flight operations and that there will be no new flight paths.

The details provided by Gatwick are based on the 2019 baseline for noise. CAGNE say 2019 was one of the worst years for residents suffering extreme levels of aircraft noise.

SEE ALSO London Gatwick Airport: Planning application to bring Northern Runway into use alongside Main Runway accepted for detailed examination | London Gatwick £2.2bn growth plans: Airport chief 'confident' scheme will be accepted

CAGNE claim Gatwick are informing residents that there will be no changes to the flight paths. They said: “Yet Gatwick are applying and progressing airspace changes for a 2 runway operation through the controversial Government’s modernisation of airspace. Gatwick is already at stage 2 (seeking to pass to stage 3 of the Civil Aviation Authorities CAP1616 consultation process) that could see many areas around Gatwick, which are not currently overflown being impacted by new flight paths to assist growth. Modernisation also seeks greater concentration of flight paths (motorways in the sky) over those currently overflown by departures and arrivals.”

A Gatwick spokesperson said: “We recognise the climate emergency and the need for the whole aviation industry to act to reach net zero by 2050. To that end, we accelerated our plans to achieve net zero for airport emissions (Scope 1 and 2) by 2030 and will invest over £250 million so that we achieve this ten years ahead of our previous target.

“The government is also committed to work with airlines to ensure they meet a trajectory of reducing carbon emissions to get to net zero (2050) through measures including airspace modernisation; Sustainable Aviation Fuel, electric, hydrogen and hybrid aircraft and setting carbon budgets for airlines.

“As part of our plans, we are working with relevant highway authorities to redesign and improve local roads around the airport to mitigate the impact of airport traffic on local road users.”

CAGNE said: “It is clear that we may see more holding and more taxiing as a result of a 2 runway operation. With a complex traffic light system, that will have to deal with planes queuing up to depart as they seek to cross one runway to access the other. This could well result in more go-arounds too,” said authors of the report, CAGNE.

“This will inevitably lead to more noise from ground operations, greater noise from aborted landings, and an increase in emissions. Those that suffer aircraft noise today will be in a far worse situation, some unbearable, whilst those residents that believe they are not impacted could find themselves with a devalued home and their wellbeing suffer if they do not oppose a 2nd runway now.”

Full report can be found at www.cagne.org

You can see Gatwick’s Northern Runway plans here.