Representation by Howard Godfrey
- Date submitted
- 14 June 2023
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
The noise from the planes is excessive, especially if they take off to the east over our village. In the evenings the TV is drowned out by the noise, which is every 5 minutes sometimes but set to increase. Although there are not supposed to be night flights there are the occasional landings before 6 am which can wake us early disturbing sleep. On several occasions I have also detected a Kerosene smell, which must be pollution from the dumping of fuel. Also as I grow our own vegetables here I cannot be sure what is in the soil from the improvers and other additives in the fuel. All of these jeopardies will increase with increased flights to the airport. The increase in traffic in the local roads will be unsustainable, as people avoid the jams in the major routes to the airport, I note by my experience that outside drivers are less safe on the restricted single lane tracks with passing spaces. They often speed and do not take care on blind bends for pedestrians or other hazards. This jeopardy will also increase with the greater flow of traffic due to airport access. Although airports are important economic assets and contribute to the economy, it is not sustainable to allow the expansion of a small airport like London Luton when there is capacity nearby in London Stanstead, London Gatwick and London Heathrow. The airport relies on 2 major carriers at the moment and if either or both relocate then the investment will be a white elephant and a drastic waste of public money and of environmental capital which is in short supply. With the threat of climate change it is not a positive step to allow any expansion of air capacity. In fact the threat of restriction is probably driving investment in current fleets and infrastructure before regulation restricts this, effectively inflating the capacity unnecessarily early. The expansion of Luton would fall into this category I think.