Representation by Dina Bransby
- Date submitted
- 24 October 2023
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
My husband and I have lived in Leigh since 1994, this is to highlight we are not recent residents. Being Dutch I enjoyed Gatwick close by since I could travel to Holland for visits. I am grateful for the wonderful Eurostar which has replaced this need to fly. The fondness for Gatwick changed when during 2013/2014 without consultation they placed a direct flight path over this village. A long battle commenced and we were able to get a legal ruling to change the approach distance. To this day there is still a battle about the lack of a fair distribution of airplanes flying overhead since if everybody shares some of the noise, it will be fairer and help us all. In all of this, their is a great distrust about Gatwick's management and it's owners. So I do not trust their promises about creation of jobs, they are the largest airport in the world for automation of checking in luggage and the trajectory will be more automation and less staff. Meanwhile the traffic around the airport will be horrendous for residents in the area, the benefit for this expansion will be minute in relation to the impact of congestion and additional noise of all the extra flights. It flies in the face of finding alternative means of travel to reduce the impact of carbon emissions. Finally, it is difficult to assess where the profits actually end up, in the UK or in foreign dividends so why would you embark on this project which is going to absolutely have such a negative impact on the counties of Sussex and Kent.