Council issues night flights warning to residents

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Urged participation in consultation

Every 5/6 years the Department for Transport (DfT) enters into an agreement with the airlines over the number of flights allowed at Heathrow, Stansted and Gatwick between 11.30pm and 6am - what it calls the "night quota" period.

The current agreement runs out in October 2005 which leaves very little time to set a new a regime agreed for the coming year. Therefore, the DfT is proposing that things remain as they are for the year from October 2005 - October 2006.

However, according to Hounslow Council, the DfT is planning to increase the number of flights allowed between 11.30pm and 6am from 16 per night in 2006 to 18 per night in 2012. At present, on a typical night there are 16 night flights between 11.30pm and 6am. Some nights there may be more, but, if that happens, there needs to be less on other nights so that, over a year, flight numbers average out at no more than 16 a night. The Department of Transport's plan means that the total number of flights using Heathrow between 11.30pm and 6am during the course of a year will rise from 5,800 to 6420 in 2012.

All flights between 11.30pm and 6am are landings, there are no take-offs during this period and no change to this is proposed.

The DfT has now issued the second stage of their two-part consultation document that asks for views on whether there should be restrictions over a full eight-hour night period from 11pm to 7am. Whilst they are required to ask this under the terms of the European Commission's Noise Directive, published in 2002, the DfT is not proposing to bring in restrictions covering the whole 8-hour night.

The Government is required by EC legislation to carry out this type of two-part consultation. The DfT has stated that the first part of the consultation concentrated on general principles and that part two is focussing on detailed proposals.

The document also proposes reducing the overall noise climate between 11.30pm and 6am by placing some restrictions on the types of planes used at night, but it admits that this will not affect Heathrow very much at all because the vast majority of night flights will continue to be large, noisy planes coming in from the Far East, Africa and America.

In conjunction with the public consultation, the aviation industry is being asked to provide evidence of the importance of night flights to the UK economy, an issue that is key to the DtF’s defence of night flights.
The consultation ends on 16th September.

Send your responses to:
Department for Transport
Aviation Environmental Division 4
Zone 1/34
Great Minster House
76 Marsham St
London SW1P 4DR
or email: nr-stagetwo@dt.gsi.gov.uk

HACAN ClearSkies Events
Events
HACAN ClearSkies will be holding a number of public events in the coming weeks as part of our night flights campaign:
Stalls
All 11.00am - 2.00pm
Saturday 20th August
Putney High St (outside Iceland)

Public meetings
Being run by the local authorities
Tuesday 13th September
LB Hammersmith: Hammersmith Town Hall, King St, Hammersmith – 7.00pm
(this is a meeting of the Environment & Scrutiny Panel to which the public will be invited)

Rallies
Monday 24th October
Major rally in Central Halls, Westminster – 6.30pm – 9.00pm

(Organised by HACAN ClearSkies. Details to follow, but MPs and Council leaders will be invited to address the rally)

August 23, 2005