‘Noise sewers petition launch

RESIDENTS LIVING IN CONCENTRATED FLIGHTPATHS SAY THEY ARE NOW WORSE OFF

FED-UP residents affected by passenger jets from Heathrow Airport have launched a petition against “noise sewers”.

Over the years, Heathrow Airport has constricted the flight paths of planes landing and taking off at the hub airport, in order to decrease the population “significantly affected by aircraft noise” by around 90%, the airport claims.

However, residents have complained that this concentration of flight paths has meant those people still impacted by aircraft noise from Heathrow are “far worse off” compared with 2014.

The effect, six miles from the airport, is the house and ground shaking, said the petition’s author.

The petition, which has already received more than 600 signatures, calls on the airport, government and Nats, the UK air traffic controllers, to ditch their policy of concentrating traffic into narrower flight paths.

The petition, which demands an “end to noise sewers caused by Heathrow”, also asks that planes be forced to take off from the airport at an 8% angle, higher than the current 6% angle. This, the author argues, would mean aircraft would be “far higher”, reducing noise and air pollution in west London.

The petition ends by saying that the author and signatories are also opposed to the expansion of Heathrow Airport, which would see a third runway built to the north-west of the current airfield, with a portion stretching over the M25.

MPs will have a final vote on expansion in the coming weeks, before the Parliamentary summer recess, the government has vowed.

Heathrow held an initial consultation on changes to air space earlier this year, the results of which are expected to be published soon.

The preliminary air space consultation focused on “the principles that should guide future airspace design”.

A second consultation, due in early 2019, will focus more precisely on “design envelopes within which potential flight paths could go”.

A “soundlab” has been established at Heathrow , where local residents can examine the impact of various airspace policies, such as phasing between the different runways, where they live.

Flightpaths in the capital have not been significantly changed since they were established in 1975, when air traffic was around a third of its present level.

A spokeswoman for Heathrow said that its submission to the Airports Commission about flying quieter aircraft and extending the flight ban to six and a half hours would mean that, by 2040, Heathrow could grow busier whilst affecting fewer people by noise than were affected in 2013.

“We know aircraft noise remains an issue for local communities – that’s why Heathrow has been working hard to design innovative ways to reduce its impact,” she said.

“Over the past 30 years, we have implemented strict operating procedures at Heathrow, and encouraged airlines to use their quietest aircraft at the airport.

“That means that since the 1970s, despite a doubling of the number of flights, the population significantly affected by aircraft noise around Heathrow has reduced by around 90%.

With expansion, we have pledged to introduce a 6.5 hour ban on scheduled night flights and offer a worldclass noise insulation scheme worth more than £700 million for those living closest to the airport.

“We’re currently going through the process of how we can modernise the airspace around Heathrow and encourage the public to get involved when the next stage of the consultation launches in early 2019.”