Representation by Rupert Gowrley
- Date submitted
- 21 October 2023
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
I am opposed to these proposals on the following grounds: Climate: facilitating an increase in aircraft movements hampers national and international efforts to reduce emissions from fuel that are contributing to the rapid and dangerous rises in the earth's temperatures. Arguments will be made be the airport that future technologies will reduce such fuel emissions but these do not exist in a viable form and cannot be a legitimate basis for these plans. In addition, construction itself will have a similarly Environmental: construction, increased noise, increased water pollution from airport run off into the River Mole all have negative impacts on stressed local biodiversity. Local transport infrastructure capacity: Construction will increase volumes on main road arteries causing a knock on impact on the local network of minor roads through the south of Surrey and the north of West Sussex which are already very busy with commuter, delivery and normal local economic traffic. Noise: increased aircraft movements will cause significant increases noise across a wider area. The Airport's case seems to rely on future aviation technologies that will cause noise reduction. Again, such technologies are not yet implemented into aircraft operator's fleets. Economic case: directly employed jobs at the airport have been steadily declining over several years as a result of fluctuating demand, implementation of technologies etc. Aviation demand across the South East has been subject to fluctuations over the past 20 years+ and assuming that demand will simply increase and consumer and economic demands will simply rise is not a robust assumption.