Representation by Brockenhurst Road residents (Brockenhurst Road residents )
- Date submitted
- 8 October 2018
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
We are a group of residents living in Brockenhurst on Ramsgate’s East Cliff, directly under RSP’s proposed flight path. Our street comprises ordinary households, two small units for vulnerable looked-after young people and a nursing home for elderly residents, some of whom are extremely frail. The age profile in our street matches Ramsgate’s, with a high proportion of retired and semi-retired people, but we also include working families, self-employed people and commuters. Our youngest resident is a toddler and our oldest i their nineties.
We have two major concerns about RSP’s proposals - the impact on our and other residents’ health and quality of life, and the escalation of their plans since the very limited number of ‘consultation’ events they held last year. Some of us did manage to attend one of these, despite receiving no notification about it and hearing it was on only at the last minute. At this event we were assured that despite being under the flight path we would suffer very little noise and there would be little effect on air quality. We found this difficult to believe, and were unsurprised, therefore, when RSP’s PEIR submission predicted ‘significant adverse effects’ on the quality of life of people in Ramsgate - and understandably we were angry at not having been advised of this during the consultation.
Since then, in order apparently to meet the requirements for a DCO, RSP’s proposals have expanded. The number of Air Traffic Movements proposed has increased dramatically, and although we were repeatedly assured that there were no plans for night flights, we now see that their request includes permission for flights to take place at night, and many of the jobs expected to be created are night-shift cargo handlers. The noise level requirements also appear to have risen.
This brings us on to our concerns about the health impacts of RSP’s proposals. We know that research from many sources demonstrated that aircraft noise creates stress, disturbs sleep and disrupts normal life. Air quality also suffers severely near airports. UNICEF describes air pollution as the cause of ‘devastating impacts that will last their entire lives’ on children’s growth, brain development and respiratory health. Reports from both China and the US confirm that the elderly and the young are particularly at risk from the higher levels of air pollution to be found within 6 miles of airports. As well as being concerned for our own children and elderly residents, we are seriously worried about the impact of RSP’s plans on the 4 schools and many homes for the elderly under their proposed flight path.
Most of all, we are angry at not having been properly consulted, not having been informed about the likely impact of RSP’s plans and having had our quality of life and that of 45,000 other Ramsgate residents dismissed as unimportant.
Tony Uden, Tricia Austin, Joanna Rymill, Don Wilton, Roshni Wilton, Therese Hack, Douglas Hack Brockenhurst Ramsgate (All email addresses available on request)