Following the start of Gatwick Airport’s 6-month flight path trial on 17th February which is being run by National Air Traffic Services together with the airport, there has been outrage among villagers surrounding Gatwick in Surrey. Villagers are calling for the trial to be scrapped and have warnbed that around 30 towns and villages in the area are likely to be subjected to ‘nightmare’ aircraft noise.
GACC (Gatwick Area Conservation Campaign), the principal environmental body near Gatwick that boasts 100 borough, parish and district councils and environmental groups as part of their members, has been working to reduce the noise and pollution generated by the airport, as well as protecting the surrounding environment, has highlighted the fact that with airplanes passing over villages at levels as low as 2,000ft, and as frequently as 5-minute intervals, the trial has raised considerable health issues, particularly for the disabled and elderly, and increased noise levels. So much so that much “outrage” has been expressed by many, particularly in the nearby village of Warnham who, in the past, didn’t suffer from aircraft noise and whose parish has called the issues caused by the trial a “wake-up call”.
Brendon Sewill, GACC chairman and a resident of Stan Hill in Charlwood, Surrey (just 2 miles from the airport!), referring to what could become standard aircraft activity should a second runway be built, has said: “It is just a small foretaste of what is to come if a new runway were to be built. With a new runway, the new flight paths would bring anger and misery to perhaps 30 or more towns and villages – permanently!”
Sally Pavey, who lives in Warnham and is also a committee member of GACC, has reported that the flight path trial has sparked a huge wave of protest amongst villagers, and said: “The tranquillity of our 14th century conservation village has been lost and we seem powerless to do anything about it. Everyone is up in arms as we are woken at 6am with an aircraft overhead every few minutes. Living in Warnham has turned into a nightmare!”
As the GACC calls for the flight path trial to be stopped, stating that all the trial has proved to date is that it causes maximum anger amongst local people as houses go down in price and peace is destroyed, a Gatwick Airport spokeswoman responded: “The trial is part of the Future Airspace Strategy; a UK-wide programme looking at modernising airspace routes and improving the efficiency of airspace. The departure route, which enables aircraft to climb more quickly after take-off, reduces the overall number of people affected by aircraft noise and overflight.”
All we can say is, surely there is another way? Surely the impact on the local community and environment is just too much for the sake of a few more airplanes taking off?
By Oliver Derek