Yesterday a letter arrived in my email box from the Chief Executive of Heathrow. He wants my support in case Heathrow emerges as the preferred location for an extra runway from the imminent Report.
I have written back to him reminding him that recent changes to flight patterns have increased the noise over my constituency. This took place with no advertisement or public consultation. I have held meetings with both Heathrow and NATs to complain. I am awaiting answers to my questions about what measures they propose to take to reduce the current noise levels and to reconsider the flight paths.
I have asked the Chief Executive himself to look into this important matter, which has reduced support for Heathrow in the Wokingham area. I want to know if the flightpaths can be changed back, if the planes can climb and descend more steeply so they are higher over us, if pilots can be required to fly in less noisy ways, if future capacity increases could remove the need for stacking and circling, and if more use can be made of quieter planes.
I will pursue these issues with Heathrow, NATs and Ministers.
May 20, 2015
Thank you for your continued efforts on this matter.
Needless to say I find the sheer gall and arrogance of John Holland-Kaye quite astonishing. I appreciate you have to be a little more diplomatic.
But as far as the aviation authorities are concerned the issue is concluded. Wait for long enough and the apathetic British public will simply suck it up and move on. I have continued to press Heathrow, NATS and CAA to provide the most basic of year on year flight path analysis – the sort of analysis the can turnaround in a few days when they believe it will support their own arguments. But to no avail. I understand they also have failed to supply the Three Villages action group with any data either.
I was encouraged to call one of the Heathrow representatives as “Heathrow’s operations are complex and we find we can cover a lot more ground with residents on the phone than is possible in a written”. I did and was fed the scripted propaganda you’d expect including a line about flight paths all changing in two years time so maybe then I’ll be less inconvenienced! Ignoring the ridiculousness of the statement itself it once again reaffirms the fact that there is absolutely no understanding of the increase in air traffic noise being experienced. Ok maybe on westerly operations the increase is marginal but on easterly operations the impact is simply not measurable. We’ve gone from never really noticing a plane to my house shaking every time a plane flies over – which is approximately every minute!
I remain literally dumbfounded how this can be allowable in this country in 2015.
Regards,
Paul.