Category: Information Library

Concentrated flight paths bring flood of complaints

We don’t normally post HACAN East press releases on this site but we thought this would be of interest as the new concentrated London City flight paths impact so many people who are also under the Heathrow flight paths

Press Release

29/8/16 for immediate use

 Concentrated flight paths bring a flood of complains

London City Airport’s decision to concentrate all its flights paths earlier this year has resulted in a flood of complaints.  HACAN East, which gives a voice to residents under the flight paths, today launched a short report outlining some of the complaints they received in just one month – read report: HACAN East booklet
John Stewart, chair of the campaign group, said, “We have received dozens of complaints over the last month.  The hot weather has made people particularly aware of the planes.  The concentrated flight paths have brought complaints from many areas for the first time.  The complaints have come from vast swathes of east and south east London.”
One person in south London said, “We have gone from having little or no flights to one every 3 minutes.  Some of us have spent a lifetime trying to get on the housing ladder only for this to happen.”
Another wrote: “I moved to Dagenham from Kingsland Road in Hackney in 2014 because my family & I wanted more peace and quiet; now it’s noisier than living on Kingsland Road in Hackney; we are heart-broken.”
Stewart said that HACAN East has met with the airport who said they ‘have not closed their mind’ to looking again at the concentrated flight paths but will not do so until next year after the Government has issued its forthcoming consultation on national airspace policy.
ENDS

 

 

 

 

Post 2014 Trial Reports

Trials took place in 2014 to test new operational and technical procedures. The trials resulted in a lot of planes flying over certain areas and in a concentrated way. Following complaints from some people in the communities affected that the flight paths had not gone back to their pre-trial patterns, Heathrow paid for work to test this out. The reports found that flight paths had returned to their pretrial routes. The steering group for the work was made up of representatives from the affected communities. The steering group set the brief for the work and appointed the consultants. The areas the report covered were Sunninghill, Bracknell & Wokingham, Englefield Green, Lightwater and Teddington & Twickenham. Although things went back to normal after the trials, the reportdid identify some changes that had taken place incrementally over the 10 years or so between 2006 and 2016. Departures had become more concentrated along the centre-lines of the Noise Preferential Routes. On some routes the height of aircraft increased, but on others the planes were flying lower. It also identified a gradual increase in the number of aircraft on most routes, with the Teddington/Twickenham route seeing a particularly annoying increase of large, intercontinental traffic in the mid/late evening.

You can find the reports here:https://www.heathrow.com/noise/heathrow-community-noise-forum/flight-analysis .

HACAN Launches Major Report on Aircraft Noise and Health

A major new report published today has found that the health of over one million people in the UK is at risk from aircraft noise.   The report, Aircraft Noise and Public Health: The Evidence is Loud and Clear, commissioned by campaign group HACAN and produced by the Aviation Environment Federation, has called on the Government to undertake a complete review of all its polices to ensure that they take full account of the health impacts of aircraft noise.

Here is the report: Aircraft Noise and Public Health the evidence is loud and clear final reportONLINE

And here is the summary: AEF_aircraft noise and health_FINAL3

Key findings:

  • People exposed to high levels of aircraft noise around Heathrow have a 24% higher chance of stroke, 21% higher chance of heart disease, and 14% higher chance of cardiovascular diseases compared to people exposed to low levels of aircraft noise
  • Over 460 schools around Heathrow are exposed to aircraft noise levels that may impair learning and memory
  • In the UK close to 600,000 people are exposed to night-time aircraft noise levels far above WHO recommendations

HACAN chair John Stewart said, “These findings are shocking but not surprising.  Aircraft noise is having a major impact on people’s health.  HACAN is calling on the Government to postpone any decision on new runways until a full health assessment has been carried out on each proposal.  Today HACAN is setting up the Heathrow Health Alliance to monitor progress.”

Launch: Tuesday 12th January, 2 – 3pm, Committee Room 19, House of Commons; Hosted by Tania Mathias MP; Key Speakers:Tim Johnson, Director of AEF, Professor Stephen Stansfeld, Professor of Psychiatry, Queen Mary University of London

ENDS

 

Third Runway at Heathrow FAQ

 

A 3rd Runway at Heathrow

 10 reasons why we oppose it

 The previous Government set up the Airports Commission, chaired by Sir Howard Davies, to look at whether new runways would be needed.  It narrowed the choice to a 2nd runway at Gatwick or a 3rd runway at Heathrow.  In its final report, published in July 2015, it recommended 3rd runway at Heathrow.  But it is not a done deal.  The Government makes the final decision.  An announcement is expected before Christmas.  But that will not mean it is a done deal.  It could face legal challenges. It will need to get planning permission.  The last Labour Government gave permission for a 3rd runway but it never saw the light of day because of the weight of public opposition.  It could happen again.

A 3rd runway would mean 250,000 extra flights a year using Heathrow

  1. Over 700,000 live under the Heathrow flight paths; making London the most overflown city in Europe

 

Number of people affected:B6-cFXqIQAAmnm22.  At least 783 homes would be demolished

That is simply the number required for the runway itself.  Heathrow has recognized that up to 4,000 in total might need to be bought up because the current plans leave too many people uncomfortably close to the new runway.

 3.  Tens of thousands would be under a flight path for the first time

A new runway inevitably means a new flight path. Many people in West London, (including parts of Chiswick, Brentford and Hammersmith) as well as areas west of the airport could get planes for the first time for possibly as many as 13 hours in one day.

4.  A third runway is not essential for London economy

More business people and tourists fly into London each year than fly to any other city in the world.  Most have no preference which airport they use. This trend will continue whether or not a third runway is built at Heathrow.  The Airports Commission, while favouring Heathrow, still called Gatwick a credible option.

  1. There are big air pollution problems around Heathrow

Heathrow is the only major UK airport where air pollution levels remain stubbornly above EU legal limits. The pollution comes from the planes but also from the traffic on the nearby motorways.  Despite cleaner planes and cars coming on-stream, there is real doubt whether, with a third runway and its extra 250,000 flights, the air pollution limits will be met.

6. A 3rd runway would cause health problems

There is clear evidence that the high levels of air pollution in London are causing health problems, and even early death.  Studies also show that noise can cause stress and heart problems as well as impact on children’s learning.

 7.  A 3rd runway would require expensive rail and road upgrades

The M25 between junctions 14 and 15 (Heathrow to the M4) is the busiest section of motorway in UK.  It may need to be upgraded even without a 3rd runway but part of the M25 would need to be put in a tunnel if a new runway is built.  It is estimated that the road and rail upgrades could cost at least £5 billion.  Heathrow Airport will pay for any new runway but could well ask for public money to pay for the surface access improvements.

 8.  It would cause big climate problems

A third runway in itself would not bust the Government’s targets to cut CO2 emissions but it would mean that the planes using the country’s other airports would need to be strictly controlled.

 9.  It would face massive opposition

There would be opposition not just from local residents but also from environmentalists, many local authorities, politicians from all parties as well as some businesses and trade unions. When the last Government tried to build a third runway, it was defeated by this coalition.  Huge rallies attended by thousands of local people, cross-party political activity, eye-catching direct action, all backed up by sound arguments saw of the plans for a third runway.

 10.  There are alternatives

Other airports are being looked at where the impacts of expansion would be less but there is also scope for a switch to rail.  Around 20% of the flights currently using Heathrow are domestic or to near-Europe.  And, indeed, 45% of air trips within Europe are 500 kilometres or less in length.  If trains were fast and more affordable, a number of people would switch from air to rail.

 

Most noise emails come from…..EAST of Clapham Junction

HACAN gets more emails from areas in South London east of Clapham Junction in a typical week than any other single area. 

This surprises people when I mention it to them.  They expect most of the complaints to come from areas closer to the airport.

I suspect there are four reasons for this:

  • In West London there is now more of an acceptance of the noise (though this is far from universal).
  • Most people moving into West London know there may be planes in the area; this is not the case elsewhere.
  • Unlike West London, there is no real respite from the noise.  In West London people under the landing flight paths get a half day’s break from the noise when planes switch runways at 3pm each day.
  • The fact, brought up in a number of the emails, that  an operational change (often quite a small one) by air traffic controllers can have the effect of concentrating flights over particular areas.

The number of planes flying over parts of SE London can be considerable, with HACAN having recorded over 40 planes an hour at the Oval, the vat majority under 4,000 ft.

Below are a selection of the emails we received over the last week or so.

(Note to aviation experts: some of the assumptions people make about why they are suffering noise may not be accurate.  Don’t let that get in the way of their clear message: they are suffering from the noise.)

Message:  

Morning, I’ve just moved into Camberwell and I’m devastated by the CONSTANT drone of aircraft. There is literally no respite and the garden has become a no-go zone. We are so far away from Heathrow but almost every plane that lands there flies directly over us and unlike areas of West London, there is no respite or ‘off-days.’

Is there any good news you can provide or have I just made the most expensive mistake of my life?

Message:

Hi, when you see coverage of noise you see more (understandably) on noise near the airport. However, we in Forest Hill get noise from around 5am loud enough to wake us up, and are in SE6 area. What can residents from further afield do to get their point about noise across?  Do you have regional or borough action groups or citizen reporting and monitoring groups? I would like to set up a noise monitor but don’t know how to best do this in a way that will ensure the data is usable. Please advise!

Message:

Dear Sir or Madam, Do you know if there are any groups or people in Kennington/Lambeth North area who are also disturbed by the massive increase in aviation noise since 2012? I am looking to get in touch to compare their experiences to my own. I assume you are aware that peak noise from Heathrow arrivals have increased fourfold in this area and due to the increase in frequency of flights, there no gaps in the noise.

Message:

Hi John, I hope you are well.  We have noticed a further increase of flights – this is now getting out of hand!  We now have times where there are planes every 2 minutes!  We never used to be overflown like this in Hither Green.  Could you please provide the latest data so we can see the increase and suggest what we can do to take further action.

Message:

Thanks John.  So from the WebTrak data yesterday I can see now that planes cut across Wandsworth Common so at least now it’s starting to show what we can all see so some progress here*.  The obvious next question is who changed the approach path (it seems from the Croydon stack) as they have never come across the Common before?

* His previous email was a complaint that Webtrak was not showing the true location of the planes.

Message:

Please can you advise on action I can take.  Family and neighbours suffering from sleep deprivation thru 4am onwards noise of numerous Heathrow flights and total loss of amenity and enjoyment of our homes. Our property seems to be under the direct flight path. Flights greatly increased as has noise. Generally woken up every morning just after 4am by noise Heathrow incoming flights which even keeping a radio on overnight as background noise, can’t block out aircraft noise. We suffer noise blight from the two “stacks” etc our side of Kent (Biggin and the other one). Have you been contacted by anyone else the Sundridge Park/Elmstead Woods side of Bromley? Can you please let us know whom we can take this totally unacceptable situation up with and if I can do anything constructive in your organisation to get satisfaction for all the residents her in getting rid of this blight on our lives.

Message:

I would like to report intense, constant aircraft noise in Brockley, SE4. Planes thunder over the house, over and over again, every day for 18 hours non-stop – a relentless drone and roar of aircraft (e.g. today 21/7/2015).  There is absolutely no relief in the area. I am aware that “planes have always been over the area”, as Heathrow often says, but they have never been at this concentration or intensity, this has got a lot worse recently.

When will the area gets some respite?