Representation by John Long
- Date submitted
- 21 June 2023
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
As a resident of Slip End village for almost 17 years, I have a number of concerns regarding this airport-expansion project. Over this period there has already been a significant deterioration in the quality of life in this part of the world and the general environment in which we and other residents of Slip End live. Apart from the social impact of losing 4 out of 5 public houses within a 10-minute walk of the village centre, there are other ever-increasing environmental issues with aircraft noise, air pollution, road traffic density, speeding and HGV’s using village roads illegally. The proposed expansion of Luton Airport will do nothing but make these worse both in the construction of the proposed infrastructure and beyond. At this stage, as somebody who will be significantly impacted by the proposed development, I am raising my concerns at a general level as suggested by the project team. Current Situation: • Slip End has a population of c 2000 people and a thriving Primary School with c 170 pupils aged between 3½ and 11 years. • Air Traffic Movements year to 2 May 2023 = 125,212 up from 92,710 in the prior year. This is already a 35.1% year-on-year increase. • Currently c12.000 staff local staff are employed directly at the airport. Impact of the Proposed Development: 1. Air Pollution. With an estimated 78% increase in air traffic movement, it is not unreasonable to believe that the level of air pollution caused by aircraft exhausts will increase in the same way. Over the last 5 or so years the trajectory of aircraft taking off from the airport has shifted by about 1.5km westwards. Initially the flightpath would take them over open country to the east of Pepperstock. The current flightpath means that they are now passing with increased regularity directly over the village and the primary school. Over the last 6 months or so it has shifted up to half a kilometre even further west, now impinging on airspace above another heavily-populated area being the village of Caddington. Additional fumes carry with them additional health risks for young and old alike and it may be years before the impact is fully felt. 2. Noise Pollution. When an aircraft takes off over the village, conversation out of doors has to stop for an average of 30 seconds as all speech is drowned out. This will only get worse. 3. Road Traffic. With the estimated increase in passenger-carrying capacity which this expansion plan envisages, it is also not unreasonable to believe that employee numbers will also rise. The estimate for this is harder to evaluate but, needless to say, the fact that some of the village roads and surrounding areas already regularly sound and look like a race-track at all hours of the day and night, this will only get worse as people in the area travel to and from work. Whilst current traffic-calming measures have improved over the last 5 years, there is still room for significant improvement. - Although we all wish that electric cars would be the solution to improving air quality, this will not happen in the foreseeable future to the extent that is needed to safgeguard the health of the residents. - With traffic comes air and noise pollution but also increasing levels of litter and fly-tipping. Local government has enough of a challenge monitoring and cleaning up at current levels. Once again this is only going to go in one direction at an increased cost to the taxpayer. John Long 21 June 2023