Representation by Simon Alderman
- Date submitted
- 26 October 2023
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
When planes take off from Gatwick they frequently pass above my house. On Sunday when I was working in my garden I was unable to hear the podcast I was listening to without turning up the volume of my smartphone. Quite a few (at least four) passed above our house within a half hour. Inevitably, if another runway is made live at Gatwick I will be subject to more intrusive noise. In addition, since we are trying to combat climate change, I cannot understand how an increase in flights can be justified. We need fewer flights, not more. People need to reduce their carbon footprint whether they like it or not. Gatwick will no doubt argue that they will achieve a carbon neutral position by 2030. I simply do not believe this. They also say that within 9 years of the new runway going live they will produce the same amount of noise as in 2019. This is almost certainly nonsense achieved by taking a total noise output and dividing it by the substantially larger number of flights or else by banking on unproven technology to provide the magic reduction.