Representation by Ronald William Ledbury
- Date submitted
- 24 September 2023
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
Noise pollution from increased flights Air quality degradation from aircraft Increased local traffic congestion & air pollution issues on the M23 Policy has been misinterpreted by the applicant as this is an applicant for a new runway which does not comply with policy, Government’s Aviation Strategy. Gatwick does not have 2 runways ‘existing’ that it can operate concurrently today as such it is a new runway being constructed at night. Increase in aircraft noise – evidence an additional 101,000 flights a year to a cap of 386,000. Decline in air quality further as Gatwick ignores the far-reaching impact of road and air emissions created by its operations. Lack of affordable housing locally to enable workers to walk or cycle to work as the applicant proposes. And lack of amenities eg hospitals, schools, etc Low skilled jobs are offered with little job security due to the volatile nature of the airport’s leisure business. Gatwick sits on a single main road, the M23 which is deemed an unsafe smart road. To add to the huge increase in freight, passengers and workers will cause a significant increase in congestion on residential roads and an inevitable decline in air quality. The airport sits on the Brighton Main Line, which can’t be expanded. Gatwick seeks to add an unacceptable burden to the line with over 32m extra passengers and luggage. We face a climate emergency, and a new runway would add a significant amount of carbon and greenhouse gases – Evidence CCC (2020) The Sixth Carbon Budget – Methodology Report. Available at: www.theccc.org.uk Potential for flooding and sewage entering the river system again travelling to the River Arun. Proposed use of the Gatwick emergency runway as a second operating runway, will be comparable on a similar but worse scale, to change of operational mode by deletion of hard shoulders for use as motorway emergency breakdown lanes.Such latter change of lane status to dual use on motorways and removal of previous permanent emergency lanes, is now accepted and recognised as an inferior & more dangerous change of use, due to ineffective and/or defective data camera scanning & staff monitoring of running lanes, not quickly changing the mode of operation.Should the Gatwick Airport proposals be implemented and it has sometimes to revert back to temporary emergency (what would be past)use during any future operation of 2 runways, it will lead to severe air traffic congestion, flight diversions & passenger delay, increased air & noise pollution due to aircraft stacking