Representation by Philip Tew
- Date submitted
- 21 September 2023
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
I am writing to provide you with a submission for the Gatwick Northern Runway project. I live in Speldhurst, which is a village already blighted by plane noise and other pollution as a consequence of Gatwick Airport which has risen substantially over the years. I only found out about Gatwick's Northern Runway proposal through our Parish Magazine and so clearly Gatwick are trying to get this through on the basis of a very low profile. I suspect large numbers of residents in the surrounding towns and villages would be horrified at this proposal, as am I, if they only knew about it. We are experiencing a climate crisis and aircraft are a significant contributor to greenhouse gases. It is absolutely appalling that anyone can possibly think it is appropriate in these circumstances that airport runway capacity is expanded. It will create a further burden on our net zero targets, send completely the wrong message across the world when we are trying to ensure that countries across the world play their part in the climate crisis. It will also create addition unnecessary noise pollution. We should be finding ways of reducing air travel and not increasing it. Gatwick has no interest in any of these concerns despite no doubt very expansive and expensive submissions to the contrary. They just want to expand capacity to make more money. Their behaviour is simply cynical. Philip Tew