Representation by Hever Castle Ltd (Hever Castle Ltd)
- Date submitted
- 11 September 2023
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
The impact on AONBs and National Parks, which should be protected from being overflown Impact on Hever Castle as a heritage visitor attraction Low unemployment means there will not be sufficient people to fill new job vacancies Gatwick is surrounded by greenbelt, AONBs, National Parks and greenbelt so there is nowhere to build new housing Impact on local infrastructure - roads, water supply, schools, hospitals, etc. Kay Sully Operations Lead National Infrastructure Planning The Planning Inspectorate Temple Quay House 2 The Square Bristol, BS1 6PN Chief Executive’s Office: (redacted)@hevercastle.co.uk 19th September 2023 Dear Ms Sully Please find enclosed a copy of a letter I have sent to Julia Thornton, the Leader of Sevenoaks District Council. I sincerely hope you will give proper consideration to the planning constraints we currently have here at Hever and within the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It is rather difficult to imagine that Hever Castle and the land around it could have more designation than it currently has, yet Gatwick Airport seems entitled to completely ignore this. Surely you, as the Planning Inspectorate, have to ensure that our planning system exists for a reason. It surely cannot be that a train line that produces significantly less pollution than a plane ever does, and roads and indeed, any other kind of development would not be allowed to happen here, yet planes appear to have no restrictions. I hope you appreciate that if Gatwick is allowed to completely blight this large swathe of one of our most special landscapes, it makes the whole point of AONBs and other protections pointless. I appreciate the difficulty that your organisation has here, not least as you are not responsible for aircraft movements, but some years ago a point merge system was proposed where planes would meet south of Brighton over the sea and would be pulled in directly to the airport, overflying a minimum number of residents, while also missing our most visited attractions and overflying the smallest amount of our best landscape. Yours sincerely Duncan Leslie MRICS Chief Executive Julia Thornton Leader of Sevenoaks District Council Email: (redacted)@sevenoaks.gov.uk Chief Executive’s Office: (redacted)@hevercastle.co.uk 14th July 2023 Dear Julia Apologies for a second letter but it was suggested I should brief you on my thoughts on aeroplanes. Hever Castle is the most wondrous place, as I am sure you will know, particularly so when we have an east wind and no planes. Unfortunately much of the rest of the time we get a plane many times each hour, sometimes as many as one minute. Some years ago Gatwick Airport, NATS and the CAA were talking about a ‘point merge’ system where the planes would meet over the sea south of Brighton and then go in a large circle before being pulled into the airport one by one. The benefits of this system is that it made Air Traffic Control a lot simpler to operate, less people would be overflown, poplar Grade 1 heritage attractions would be avoided, and importantly, it would reduce the amount of fuel burn so less carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere. At the time some of the locals were against it as they felt it would unfairly impact on those living under the new narrow flight approach to the airport but I believe Gatwick Airport have encouraged the locals to want a wide approach to Gatwick. I say wide but we still get most of them flying over Hever, despite the fact we are over 12 miles away from the runway. By having this widish swathe Gatwick can claim and, indeed do claim, that a second runway would not significantly increase the noise envelope around the approach to the airport. The problem with this wide swathe that they currently have, especially with so much of it being so far away from the runway, is that a very wide swathe of the nation’s best landscape, mostly AONB, is blighted. Many fly east over the Ashdown Forest to then turn over Hever and west to the airport. It seems the airport industry is happy to completely ignore all the designations that thousands of people have spent decades in creating. It is absurd that, despite the fact that one could build a noisy factory with great soundproofing and surround it by trees so no-one could actually see it, this would simply not be allowed within an AONB. However, it is entirely fine for a very loud metal box to fly over the top of said land utterly ruining it for anyone trying to have a nice peaceful day in the countryside. Gatwick cannot, of course, avoid all of the AONB but with a ‘point merge’ system they could avoid most of it. I believe it is far better to have a narrow approach to the runway where the noise is concentrated as that then leaves most of the AONB for the general public to enjoy. Such places are vital, especially so close to our capital city. It means people wanting to get away for a quick getaway can do so without burning huge amounts of carbon travelling to Wales or Yorkshire or wherever else for a bit of peace and quiet and some beautiful scenery, not to mention some great history and stunning gardens. We know it is not impossible for planes to avoid at least the most visited part of the AONB which I think is Hever Castle, with our 420,000 visitors a year. For those people under the concentrated new flight path I would suggest that the Government and local authorities could organise a scheme whereby those residents are compensated for the loss in value of their property. I suspect the loss is not as high as some people might think it is, bearing in mind the high prices of Richmond and, indeed even in Hever, but if they were given a one-off capital payment and the ability to move house without incurring stamp duty then it is done and dusted and there would be a lot fewer intelligent people spending too much time complaining about overflight. I am sure the idea of Gatwick having a second runway is absurd anyway, for various reasons. It would need lots of new staff but there are few people looking for jobs at the moment, especially in that area. To provide the people for the tens of thousands of new jobs it would potentially generate you would need to create a lot more housing and, Gatwick being surrounded by AONB and National Park, is clearly not the best place for that. The train line is already at or near capacity and, as far as I am aware, the Government has no interest in spending money on further rail networks in that part of the country. The majority of people coming to Gatwick almost certainly must come by car and, as the majority of people in England live north of the Thames, a not insignificant proportion of those will come past Heathrow, thereby adding more pollution and congestion to that part of west London and the M25. I want Gatwick to be viable but I would rather it stuck to its single runway and find a route into the airport that disturbs as little of the AONB and protected landscape as possible. I would be very happy to discuss this further. Yours sincerely Duncan Leslie MRICS Chief Executive Hever Castle is a Grade 1 listed internationally important heritage attraction which sits within a Grade 1 listed Park and Garden, within the High Weald AONB, attracting over 400,000 visitors a year who come from all over the world though most from Kent and its neighbouring counties, as well as London. As such the planning system is meant to protect it from damage which includes visually and audibly. It is wrong that aircraft movement can apparently completely ignore all of these designations to a degree which is far more obtrusive and invasive than just about any other development. While I appreciate planes have to go somewhere surely real effort should be made by Gatwick and NATS to recognise our best most protected landscape and do all it can to avoid damaging such beautiful places that clearly attracts lots of people to the countryside. A place like Hever should be an engaging escape from people's busy mostly urban lives, as indeed should most of the AONB. This is particularly so with the nation's capitol so close, meaning that people looking for rural heritage and beautiful countryside can access it relatively easily without travelling too far - also very good for emissions. Gatwick's plan to expand would clearly blight an even larger part of the nation's most prized landscape and heritage. The south east recently had extensive hosepipe bans despite one of the wettest winters and springs on record. Expanding the airport will require more water and most probably more housing as the jobs proposed are not really needed around Gatwick - they struggle to get enough staff as it is - as do almost every business in the region. Public transport links are poor to Gatwick and there are no plans to expand the already very busy trainlines. Clearly expansion will cause a great deal more congestion and put huge extra pressure on local and regional services which are already oversubscribed. Most of the UK's population is north of London as are the unemployed and indeed pressure on land is less. Expanding Gatwick threatens our best landscape, our AONBs, heritage, wildlife and habitats and our congested infrastructure. It will mean people wanting to enjoy our best countryside will have to travel a great deal further to get a peaceful day out.