Representation by Steve Elphick
- Date submitted
- 28 October 2023
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
My wife and I moved to South Godstone in 1999 with one of the main reasons being to escape the everyday hustle, bustle and noise of South East London, where we'd lived for the previous 40+ years. At the time of moving the the noise from aircraft taking off to the east, and flying over our property, was just about tolerable, however over the last decade flight activity over our home has risen to unacceptable levels, plus there now appear to be many more flights at (night time) unsociable hours. Quite frankly, we are horrified at the thought of the proposed new runway and all the associated planned flights to the point that, if it were to go ahead, we would have to consider moving away form the home we love. Fundamentally, I oppose this Gatwick Airport application for a northern runway because it is a new runway – Additionally:- * Policy has been misinterpreted by the applicant as this is an application for a new runway and as such does not comply with policy, or the Government’s Aviation Strategy. Gatwick does not have 2 runways that it can operate concurrently today and as such it is a new runway being constructed. * Increase in aircraft noise – evidence is that an additional 101,000 flights a year to a cap of 386,000 will be flown. * Lack of affordable housing locally to enable workers to walk or cycle to work as the applicant proposes. Lack of amenities and infrastructure for proposed housing * Low skilled jobs are offered with little job security due to the volatile nature of the airport’s leisure business and Gatwick's stated objective to automate systems to reduce staff/increase efficiency. * Gatwick sits on a single main road, the M23 which is deemed an unsafe smart road. The huge increase in freight, passengers and workers will cause a significant increase in congestion on the M23 and related routes to/from the airport including spillover into residential roads. This will lead to an an inevitable decline in air quality. * The airport sits on the Brighton Main Line, which can’t be expanded. Gatwick seeks to add an unacceptable burden to the line with over 32m extra passengers. * We face a climate emergency, and a new runway would add a significant amount of carbon and greenhouse gases – Evidence CCC (2020) The Sixth Carbon Budget – Methodology Report. Available at: www.theccc.org.uk I'm sure there are numerous other reasons that this project should not be allowed to go ahead and I would urge you to reject the proposal outright. Yours sincerely, Steve Elphick