Representation by Marion Barker
- Date submitted
- 22 September 2023
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
Dear Inspectorate Examining Team, I am writing to register my concerns about the proposed 2nd runway at Gatwick Airport. It will increase flights by a further 100,000 a year which is the equivalent to nearly 274 flights a day. Planes will be taking off and landing at the same time parallel to each other directly over our district as well as other districts in the neighbourhood. It is already noticeable and annoying that they have changed the flight paths recently, and are flying lower. It is already disruptive and will become intolerable with a 2nd runway. We will not be able to enjoy our homes and gardens and the atmosphere will be ever-more polluted. A second runway with all these extra flights will add 1 million extra tonnes of Carbon emissions into the atmosphere as well as other pollutants, vapours and soot. Our homes will be blighted for ever as will much of Surrey and Kent. I fail to see how this helps communities under the flight paths and round the airport, the environment or the planet, particularly at a time of climate emergency. It does not benefit us economically at all, the only people it benefits are the airport, the aviation industry, the fuel industry, the owners of Gatwick Airport themselves and the shareholders of the airport itself who are the majority stakeholders. The rest of us don't seem to matter - it is appalling that big business should be allowed to ride rough-shod over thousands of people and their homes. I will be submitting further comments in due course. Yours sincerely, Marion Barker