Concern over Northolt flights
WHILE Labour calls for Boris Johnson to go after missing out on the Heathrow vote, Council Leader Puddifoot should, I believe, go with him.
As the councillor states “We will again defeat the expansion proposal. However long it takes and however much it costs” (Uxbridge Gazette July 11), while I am told by the council that it does not have the money to challenge the Northolt Jet Company (a branch of London City Airport) based at RAF Northolt airport. The council continues to ignore the 10,122 (MoD statistics for 2017) low flying, noisy, private jets flying mainly for leisure and with a x 7 carbon footprint, polluting residents and their children.
Furthermore, the evidence for an increase of flight movements at Northolt Airport is building up. £45 million is being spent on the runway, the MoD’s own report scheduled a flight increase about this time; the airport has a capacity for 50,000 private jets, (MoD’s Project Ark Report). Why wouldn’t the MoD seek to reach the capacity stated in their own report ?
Cllr Puddifoot failed to demand a planning application from the MoD when the flight cap was raised in 2012. The council has confirmed to me that, should the flight cap be raised, it will not insist on a public consultation open to all the public (essential for residents’ to exercise their rights to bring a judicial review). It will not even demand to be kept informed. The MoD continues to run a commercial airline under the guise of military jurisdiction, a use for which such jurisdiction was not, I believe, intended.
Hillingdon Council continues to ignore totally its duty of care and the basic responsibilities of local gov- My question to the Council on vital safety concerning commercial jets operating under military jurisdiction was ignored.
When I visit my parents’ grave I put a flower on a nearby grave, that of RAF Pilot Officer Cockroft who, at the age of 21, died in action in 1940. Such citizens knew the value of our human rights and died for them. This MoD is using the RAF and denying Hillingdon residents these rights. PO Cockroft must be turning over in his grave.
Residents should demand from the MoD their rights for a public consultation, the right to bring a judicial review and a Local Government who take their duties for the environmental well-being of residents seriously.
Before we end up with a London City Airport, contact your local councillors on the Hillingdon Council website to demand that the council cabinet instigates a strategy aimed at the closure of the Northolt Jet Company and the return of the airport to RAF, government and emergency uses and lobby Boris Johnson to insist that, when the MOD increases the flights cap, the Ministry of Defence will instigate a full consultation, open to all the public. Anna Williams via email