Gatwick News – Crawley Observer

Campaign launched against airport plan
20th September 2019 – Crawley Observer

website www.crawleyobserver.co.uk

By Staff Reporter
email crawleyobserver@jpress.co.uk
phone 01403 751200

Campaigners have announced they have launched a major campaign to challenge Gatwick Airport’s Master Plan.

Under the banner Gatwick’s Big Enough community groups around Gatwick have joined forces with Gatwick Area Conservation Campaign to call Gatwick to account over its proposals.

The group said the plan proposed to create an airport as big as Heathrow is today.

An increase in aircraft movements in the next ten years to 390,000 per annum (1,050 or more per day) and passenger numbers to 70 million per annum (190,000 or more per day).

The group it would bring increased misery to thousands of people through noise, pollution and impacts on local infrastructure.

The plans would also bring a significant increase in carbon emissions caused by the additional flights, the group claimed.

The campaign has got off to an early start with challenges to Gatwick’s use of the planning permitted development processes.

The initial submission to the Planning Inspectorate for Gatwick’s Stage Two, the expansion and active use of the emergency/northern runway, has been made and our teams are now in the process of preparing challenges to these proposals.

Campaign group chairman Peter Barclay, said: “Whilst this growth plan may be within the airport’s own boundaries the negative impact on communities extends many miles from Gatwick’s borders.

“In a society where there is increasing awareness of the downside of aviation activities our members want us to ensure these developments are properly contained.”

A Gatwick Airport spokes person said: “Gatwick recognises that future growth should be both economically and environmentally sustainable and is committed to delivering any future growth plans in this way.

“We will carry out a number of detailed studies to assess the impacts and benefits of our standby runway plan on our local region and will be consulting on the plans next year.

“The airport also recognises the importance of faster global and local action from all sectors to tackle climate change, and any future growth will be delivered in line with Government policy.’

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Gatwick News – Crawley Observer

Gatwick Airport starts process to bring its northern runway into routine use
6th September 2019 – Crawley Observer

website www.crawleyobserver.co.uk

By Staff Reporter
email crawleyobserver@jpress.co.uk
phone 01403 751200

Gatwick Airport has formally started the process to bring its existing northern runway into routine use.

The airport said it has submitted a notice to the Planning Inspectorate (PINS) of its intention to prepare an application for development consent.

It said this action established the ‘Gatwick Airport Northern Runway’ project on the PINS website and is the first step in the Development Consent Order (DCO) application process.

Next month, the airport will submit a ‘scoping request to PINS, which sets out the proposed approach and key issues to be included within the process.

Following the publication of its master plan in July, Gatwick announced it would prepare a planning application known as a development consent order (DCO).

The application is to bring the airport’s existing northern runway (also known as the standby runway) into routine use for smaller, departing aircraft alongside the main runway by the mid-2020s.

Tim Norwood, Gatwick’s chief planning officer, said: “As the biggest private investments in our region for many years, the start of the process to use our existing Northern Runway is a significant milestone.

This project has the capacity to offer significant local economic benefits, new jobs and an exciting future for the region.

“As we take our plans forward, we are committed to working in partnership with our local communities, councils and partners to ensure we grow sustainably and present information in a clear and transparent way, including a more detailed stage of, public consultation on the project next year.”

The first stages in the DCO process involve Gatwick carrying out surveys and preparing detailed environmental information on the Northern Runway plans later this year.

A public consultation will be held next year, after which further updates to the plans will be incorporated.

An application for development consent will then be made to PINS, which will examine the application and provide a recommendation to the Secretary of State.

The Secretary of State will then make a decision.

A spokesman for The Campaign Against Gatwick Noise and Emissions said: “It is true that our area needs investment but not this kind.

“We need investment in our roads and amenities.

Gatwick’s proposal is simply unmanageable for our area as the Government :has made clear it is investing in Heathrow and northern infrastructure.

There are many regions of the UK that could benefit from the economic stimulus that airport expansion could bring – but neither Sussex nor Surrey are one of them.

As such this application for a development consent order must be seen as a negative for our areas and unsustainable.

“Even Gatwick’s supporters at the recent Gatwick Diamond Initiative event detailed that; ‘our employers cannot get enough staff with the right skills’.

This new runway would simply cause more congestion on the roads as workers migrate daily into Gatwick Airport, inevitably decline the air quality further with substantial increases in freight on our roads whilst all the time Gatwick ignores the impact their application will have on our planet in releasing an extra one million tonnes of carbon a year from operating two runways according to expert advisory body, Aviation Environment Federation.

What we need is sustainability and not over 20,000 extra workers descending on our area looking for schools, affordable housing, health care and amenities which local authorities are struggling to accommodate currently if those residents that thought the aircraft noise from Gatwick couldn’t get any worse, the management are now planning to make it nearly 40 percent worse for us all.”

Gatwick News – Crawley Observer

Plans for new ‘rapid exit taxiway’ at airport
30th August 2019 – Crawley Observer

website www.crawleyobserver.co.uk

By Sarah Page
email crawleyobserver@jpimedia.co.uk
phone 01403 751200

Plans to build a new ‘rapid exit taxiway’ near Gatwick Airport’s main runway were due to be put before Crawley Borough Council’s planning committee last night.

Gatwick owners were consulting the council on the proposals which they said
would reduce delays caused when aircraft had to go around’ because a previous aircraft had not vacated the runway.

It would provide an additional fast exit route off the runway and could mean an extra 11 aircraft operations a day.

But members of the environment group Communities Against Gatwick Noise and Emissions (CAGNE) said it could lead to increased aircraft noise and they fear its effect on air quality.

The group said it was challenging Crawley Borough Council to ‘uphold their pledge to climate emergency.’

The climate emergency was declared last month.

Members put politics aside and pledged unanimously to cut the council’s carbon emissions by at least 45 per cent by 2030 and to zero by 2050.