HACAN ClearSkies wrote to the Prime Minister and the press released the letter.
Rt. Hon Tony Blair MP
Prime Minister
10 Downing Street
London
SW1A 2AA
21st September 2000
Dear Mr. Blair
I am writing to urge you to reverse a trend that is undermining London’s reputation as a world-class city, adversely affecting the lives of its inhabitants, and steadily increasing the risk of a major disaster in the heart of London.
You said recently that direct action was not the way to influence public policy in a parliamentary democracy. I would like to prove you right.
Nearly half a million aircraft now land in Heathrow every year. Almost all of them fly over London. One million people now live under the Heathrow flight path. In July, the number of aircraft over flying London exceeded the figure BAA had forecast for 2013 only five years ago. That means homes as far east as Lewisham and New Cross now have aircraft flying low overhead every 60-90 seconds from 6am to 11.30pm: incredibly, sometimes nearly 1000 planes a day. There is also increasing concern about the pollutants they emit and the effect they may be having on the health of Londoners.
In a global economy where quality of life indexes increasingly make the difference in decisions to locate corporate headquarters, this is bad business. The City’s competitiveness depends crucially on London continuing to attract such investment. In a country where environmental considerations are becoming increasingly important in the way people vote, I believe you will agree that this is also bad politics. But perhaps most importantly, following the recent tragedy outside Paris, none of us — politicians and Londoners alike — can be complacent about the possibility of a major air disaster striking the very heart of London. Unlike Paris, where air traffic controllers divert aircraft away from built up areas, a similar disaster in London could kill literally thousands of people on the ground.
This is not scaremongering. With nearly half a million now flying over London every year and rising, the chance of such an accident is no longer negligible. In 1999 there were 76 near-misses in the UK, the vast majority of them over London and the South East. I hope it will not take such a disaster to reverse this dangerous and unsustainable rise in aircraft over London.
You and your ministers have the power to reverse this trend and make London a safer and better place in which to live. I urge you to consider your responsibilities as you examine the Inspector’s report on the Terminal 5 inquiry, and prepare to publish the Government’s consultation document on aviation policy.
In particular, I urge you to consider the following options; options that would both lessen the number and annoyance of aircraft over flying London without restricting the increasing consumer and business demand for air travel:
Use your power over flight paths to divert aircraft away from built up areas, and to spread them out as much as possible
Develop the principle of burden-sharing between London’s major airports to take the unsustainable pressure off Heathrow (including the improvement of transport infrastructure to speed links in to central London)
Impose noise limits on aircraft landing at Heathrow (noise limits currently only apply to aircraft taking off from the airport)
Work with other countries in the EU and with the US to encourage airlines to switch to larger, quieter aircraft, and so reduce the number of flights
I very much hope you will be able to support us. We will be informing our 25,000 members and affiliated members of your response, as well as the hundreds of thousands of Londoners who feel strongly about this issue.
Yours sincerely,
John Stewart
Reply from the Prime Minister still awaited.