Yesterday I chaired a meeting with the Aviation Minister, Mr Goodwill in my room at Westminster. Also present were Philip Lee, MP for Bracknell, and John Howell, MP for Henley, and two officials from the Transport department.
I explained the background to the change of air routes over the 3 constituencies represented at the meeting. I asked the Minister to require NATs and Heathrow to go back to the position before the trials of new routes. In particular I asked that he requires planes to fly considerably higher over our part of the world, and to disperse both take off and landing approach routes as used to happen. All agreed that slowing planes on their way in to the UK to cut the number of planes stacked over built up areas would be a win win, saving fuel and reducing noise and risk. It is possible to remove the need for stacking any planes over built up areas. All agreed flying higher would help cut noise.
I will follow up with the Minister when he has time to consider our submissions.