> Thousands more homes face life in shadow of the flightpath (**)
> By Cahal Milmo
>
> Published: 21 August 2007
>
> http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/transport/article2881411.ece
>
> [Also see:
>
> http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/transport/article2881421.ece]
>
> The campaign to halt the expansion of Heathrow will intensify
> dramatically after it emerged that thousands [more] of homes will be
> blighted by new flight paths to handle a massive increase in traffic
> from the airport. [These cover huge swathes of west and north London
> incl. Chelsea and Kensington, and much of north Middlesex, Berks and
> Bucks].
>
> As the week of climate change protests reached a climax yesterday with
> a blockade of the headquarters of the airport operator, BAA, a
> coalition of 12 communities - two million people - unveiled a new
> battle over noise pollution in London and the home counties, which
> will be the inevitable outcome from a planned third runway at
> Heathrow.
>
> Under government proposals, which will go out to public consultation
> in autumn, the world's busiest international airport would see its
> number of take-offs and landings nearly double from 480,000 to 800,000
> a year by adding a runway for short-haul flights by 2020 and expanding
> the use of the existing two runways.
>
> *** The third runway alone will account for an extra 240,000 flights
> each year. ***
>
> Flight paths to cater for the new runway would cut across a swath of
> London and the South-east that has previously avoided being directly
> over-flown by planes, including Maidenhead, Slough, Chiswick,
> Hammersmith, Chelsea and Notting Hill - home to the Conservative Party
> leader, David Cameron. At least [another] 150,000 households will
> [now] find themselves directly under flight paths for the first time.
>
> And figures seen by The Independent suggest the number of people who
> are subjected to aircraft noise levels above the 57 decibels,
> considered by the Government to be the "beginning of community
> annoyance", will rise from 375,000 to 535,000 if the proposals go
> ahead.
>
> Opponents, led by local authorities and environmentalists, promised a
> campaign which will focus on the environmental impact of the airport's
> growth, including air-pollution levels close to Heathrow and stress or
> illness caused by a "sky of sound" over the capital.
>
> Residents in Sipson, the village to the north of Heathrow where 700
> properties will have to be demolished to make way for a third runway,
> have vowed to take direct action to protect their homes as well as
> pursue their case in the High Court.
>
> The campaign will encompass street protests and leafleting homes under
> the new flight paths to lobbying of ministers by local MPs and
> political leaders. Legal moves are under way to force the Government
> to reveal the findings of an air pollution audit around Heathrow,
> which it is alleged have already been disclosed to BAA.
>
> Protesters said that the Camp for Climate Change showed a "line has
> been drawn in the sand" by opponents to BAA's plans for Heathrow,
> including thousands of homeowners who will have realised the impact of
> the expansion proposals in recent days.
>
> One leading campaigner said Heathrow will now become "the new Twyford
> Down", the site of the long-running battle in the early 1990s over the
> extension of the M3 in Hampshire.
>
> The group of 12 local authorities in and around London opposed to the
> third runway, planned to open in 2017, accused the Government of
> exaggerating the economic benefits from aviation while failing to
> measure its environmental impacts. Government figures show that the
> increase to GDP by expanding aviation will be £13bn by 2030,
> outweighing climate change costs.
>
> The third runway will cater for many of the short-haul business and
> tourist flights that environmentalists argue should be replaced by
> alternative transport. The flight paths to be used by planes using the
> Heathrow runway are still being decided by the Civil Aviation
> Authority and will not be published until next year - after the
> Government consultation paper on Heathrow, expected in October.
>
> Experts consulted by the 2M group, so-called to reflect the population
> of the 12 local authorities, say new routes will be a necessity.
> Edward Lister, the leader of Wandsworth Borough Council, which is
> leading the 2M group, said: "It is inevitable that there will be new
> flight paths over parts of London and the Home Counties that have
> never experienced over-flight.
>
> "In the meantime, the CAA is working on flight paths that will not
> even be included in the Government's own proposals. People are facing
> an undefined threat with one certainty - there are going to be lots
> more aircraft coming out of Heathrow and they will need to fly over
> places where they don't fly already."
>
> BAA, owned by the Spanish group Ferrovial, has announced a £6.2bn
> spending programme to improve terminal facilities at the airport after
> the £4bn Terminal Five opens in March.
>
> But the company admits that its greatest constraint is runway capacity
> at Heathrow, which currently runs at 98.5 per cent - far above that of
> the airport's key competitors such as Paris Charles De Gaulle and
> Amsterdam's Schiphol. In the short-term, Heathrow is looking to change
> the use of its two existing runways to "mixed mode", meaning each
> runway will be simultaneously used for take offs and landings. This
> will increase capacity by 15 per cent or 80,000 flights a year.
>
> Communities facing a noisy future
>
> * Airport: Stansted
>
> Communities affected: Takeley - village in the borough of Uttlesford,
> Essex, is half a mile south-east of Stansted. Broxted - Essex village
> 2 miles north-east of Stansted airport.
>
> * Airport: Gatwick
>
> Communities affected: Charlwood - small village in south-east Surrey,
> is a mile west of Gatwick. Hookwood - small village in south-east
> Surrey, half a mile north of Gatwick. Horley - small town less than a
> mile north of Gatwick in south Surrey
>
> * Airport: Bristol
>
> Communities affected: Felton - village in north Somerset is half a
> mile east of Bristol airport. Winford - village in north Somerset one
> mile east of Bristol airport
>
> * Airport: Bournemouth
>
> Communities affected: Ferndown - small Dorset town, two miles west of
> Bournemouth airport.
>
> Throop - small Dorset town, two miles south of Bournemouth airport.
>
> * Airport: Birmingham
>
> Communities affected: Much of east Birmingham: especially areas known
> as Avon Park, Oak Ridge Park, and Woodlawn.
>
> * Airport: Edinburgh
>
> Communities affected: Suburb of Newbridge within Edinburgh, a mile
> south-west of Edinburgh airport.
>
> (**) The latest version of the projected runway will extend from
> Harmondsworth, through Sipson, through Harlington, and into Cranford
> terminating in Cranford Park. A newly projected service taxiway will
> extend from Hatton Cross maintenance area north-east to meet the
> eastern end of the third runway in Cranford Park. This vastly
> increased runway will result in the total destruction of at least FOUR
> villages, 3 listed 1000-year old churches, and the closure of over 5
> schools. The pollution will lay waste the entire town of Hayes between
> the M4 and the Paddington - Bristol railway line.
>
> Spanish construction and property development company Ferovial who
> bought the BAA (this is no longer the 'British' Airports Authority)
> and who immediately removed it from the Stock Exchange have stated
> publically that the Climate Camp and any protests abpout climate
> change will not change its intention of expanding Heathrow. When it
> bought BAA it also inherited the grandfather rights of compulsory
> purchase. This means that it is the ONLY foreign company operating in
> the UK that can forceably purchase properties of UK citizens and then
> demolish them in order to expand its operations.