Back to list Gatwick Airport Northern Runway

Representation by Christopher Wayne Morris

Date submitted
18 September 2023
Submitted by
Members of the public/businesses
  1. Additional air quality impacts on myself, family and the surrounding locale both from the construction works necessary & the ongoing operation of the airport and the additional number of aircraft movements producing engine pollution from burning aviation fuel. Also from support services and passengers transport. 2. Additional effect of engine noise upon myself, family & surrounding locale, disruption to use of garden amenity due to existing and forecast aircraft activities travelling overhead. 3. Additional noise created by the airports' operations itself within its boundary, there is already a large amount of noise generated by the airport operations both aircraft landing/takeoff, also engine testing, vehical movements, late night flight exceptions being permitted out of hours. 4. More passengers means additional 'traffic' & pollution:- Initially construction works, digging machines, construction workers, soil carrying trucks & materials supply trucks using unsuitable roads (it is a fact seen by us local road users that WSCC is already failing to manage existing road maintenance, let alone additional traffic). Additional Private cars bringing passengers to/from the airport. Additional 'coach' movements transporting passengers to/from the airport and indeed within the airport boundary itself between stand and aircraft. Additional land used for travellers 'parking' and the associated coach transfers to/from these parking zones. Additional HGV's of enterprises serving the airport in its myriad of ways, food, drink, goods, maintenance of aircraft & ground equipment, staff & crew buses and so on. 5. Impact on local labour and jobs - Gatwick is already a very large employer in the area and is a huge 'systemic' risk to the area in respect of its failure and there have been instances in the past when this has shown itself. In the late 1980's a UK recession affected 3 major airlines at Gatwick causing them to fail, local hotel bookings dropped away and many support jobs were lost - in the National press Crawley dubiously became known for the Town that went - from the "Highest employment figures" to the "Highest unemployment claiments" in the "Shortest time", more recently during the Covid outbreak Gatwick Airport simply 'laid-off' hundreds of security staff overnight and many more staff followed as the weeks went on - the business did not even adopt the furlough scheme that was at no real cost to it to help employees through a very tough time - Gatwick is already 'too big to fail' and allowing it to expand and employ more people increases the risk - in the event of another National/Global disruptive event - of economic collapse directly affecting Crawley and also the surrounding catchment areas. 6. The hidden cost to locals. Gatwick airport already costs locals in many ways that are always realised, traffic is busier because of the airport and its activities, roads take longer to negotiate as a result of the extra cars, coaches, buses, maintenance & supply vehicals and the plethora of additional traffic that Gatwick is dependent upon and/or creates as a business, the lost time in traffic adds up to extra cost for locals in respect of time, fuel costs and stress> Gatwick even started to charge for users to drop-off at the airport so not even that 'perk' is available to local users any longer. Roads are changed to assist Gatwick, it doesnt neccesarilly assist locale users however because its Gatwick the changes are made. If the proposals are allowed, roads will again be affected not only by construction works but in the long term existing roads will be closed to ordinary traffic or new access roads will be created that disaffect local users and so the people who live, work and travel about the Sussex locale will be affected by changes to traffic, roads, lights and so on but not in any way that helps the locals going about their daily lives - it will only be to Gatwicks benefit. 6. Gatwick doesn't need to expand its runway facility. It operates in an inefficient manner which if changed makes the point of an additional runway mute. In recent years we have seen Gatwick closed on various occasions, one notable time was because one of its power hubs had become flooded?, there have been occasions where Gatwick did not have sufficient runway snow clearance equipment thus planes were diverted, receently there have been insufficient local ATC staff available again resulting in disruptive diversions. As a user of Gatwick of many years the customer service is often appalling, luggage reclaim delays, gate delays, passport control delays are quite normal in my experience. It seems to me that if Gatwick invested more in staff and systems it would more easilly fulfill its role using what it has now, adding an additional runway facility will not and cannot rectify what is (in my view) and very poorly run operation, it can only add to the misery of everyone around Gatwick and the poor souls who have to use it during one of its frequent 'off days'. I would add that following the overnight dismissal of the security staff during Covid, Gatwick later used the excuse of 'Insufficient trained staff' as one of the reasons it was unable to get its operations back up and running again as quickly as airlines needed, the fault as such was entirely of their own making as they had to re-train security staff which takes weeks. Gatwick is inefficient and poorly run in my view and it is that alone which holds it back. 7. Blight or Savour? I was born in Crawley New Town in (redacted), I grew up and lived in Sussex and still live near to Crawley. Although I never worked there (except a weekend job as a younger man) Gatwick did and does provide jobs, in fact, it was one of the biggest gripes by manufacturing companies on Manor Royal industrial park Crawley, that their 'skilled labour' was going to work at Gatwick and earning more money more easily so they had to raise wages but couldnt compete thus Crawley lost its main manufacterers. Gatwick has expanded and changed over the years to become bigger and as it has done so Crawley has become more and more shadowed by it. Income in the area is not high any more, in fact Crawley is quite a poor Town now, people who work at Gatwick may earn reasonable money however they have to work hard for it and do the overtime and the manufacturing is replaced by Gatwick support businesses. It is a huge employer however on balance, I cannot say that Gatwick has been a benefit to the people who live and work nearby nor will its expansion improve that situation one iota.