Representation by Deborah Rees
- Date submitted
- 18 October 2023
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
If this proposal is allowed to go ahead Gatwick would be serving 75 million passengers by the end of the 2030s, more than double the nearly 33 million who use it annually now. I object strongly to the increased air traffic noise overhead, the increased pollution and the increased road traffic on the already congested M25 to access the airport. I would also expect the number of broken promises from Gatwick authorities to local communities - always a feature of this story - to rise exponentially. Trust in Gatwick and its owners (who are ultimately far distant from any human problems they create on the ground) is at an all-time low. Now we are told that Gatwick’s CEO, Stewart Wingate, has been appointed Co-Chair of a government committee, the Aviation Council, whose roles include to “support growth in airport capacity …”. Government is supposed to handle and decide planning applications through an entirely independent and evidence based process. Stewart Wingate’s position on the Aviation Council makes a complete nonsense of this, and clearly shows the level of contempt Gatwick has for local residents.