Representation by Gillian O'Neill
- Date submitted
- 15 June 2023
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
I am very concerned about this project and feel the expansion is unnecessary and will have a negative impact on the environment and my family's living conditions. It will also have a detrimental effect on the value of my house. I live on the flight path and we already find the excessive noise from aircraft taking off and landing over our house and garden very disruptive of our lives. Wit the plans to almost double the air traffic/passengers using Luton Airport this noise will only increase. WE are not able to hear the television or conversations when a plane is overhead already and are not able to have our windows open, even in the height of summer. During lockdown when the airport was not operating we were able to enjoy time in our garden without the deafening noise of aircraft and we could sleep at night without being woken up in the early hours by the first planes of the morning. [REDACTED], which means that loud noises causes me a pain reaction. Increased noise of air traffic will make being outside in my garden quite intolerable. The air quality will also be affected by this increase in air traffic. Again during lockdown we noticed how clean the air was, [REDACTED] was managed well and there was less dust falling from the sky onto our garden's cars, furniture etc. This pollution is noticeable once more. There will also be an impact on local roads as regards traffic and parking. The parking and drop off fees at the airport are so high that already many travellers from beyond Luton use residential streets to park and get a taxi to the airport. This means that residents are already finding it more difficult to park near their homes and when we have guests visiting they often have to park some distance away. Again this problem will be likely to almost double as the passenger intake almost doubles. Although you state that the airport expansion will bring jobs for Luton people, but it is interesting to see that many of the top paid jobs in Luton Rising (and many in the Council) are actually being fulfilled by people who are not resident in Luton, which means salaries are actually benefiting the economies of other regions not our own. There have been no plans shared with us to show how Luton Rising or the council intend to mitigate against the noise and air pollution, increased road traffic (more pollution) and parking in residential areas, and no indication that residents will be compensated for the impact on the quality of their living conditions,