Representation by Nicky Richards
- Date submitted
- 28 September 2023
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
The expansion of Gatwick Airport will negatively affect our quality of life living close to the flight path. We already have issues with the number of planes la ding late at night after Gatwick has officially closed and we expect this only to get significantly worse if the number of flights increases. I find it difficult to get to sleep with so much aircraft noise at that time of night. I also am concerned about the increase of pressure on the local area. Gatwick are promoting this expansion as bringing new jobs to the area which it will do, but we already have a problem of over-employment in this area and local businesses struggle to find staff, so in order to fill new jobs at Gatwick more people will have to mo e to the area putting more strain on local services and greater need for housing. Such airport expansion would be better to happen further away from the overcrowded South East where the jobs are needed. From an environmental perspective I believe that we should be discouraging excessive air travel and putting our money into making train travel easier to replace short haul flights. I think, given our climate commitments we need to move away from cheap flights and I would like to see real commitment from the government to change policy away from more air travel.