Representation by Raie Wilson
- Date submitted
- 7 November 2023
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
I strongly oppose the Gatwick Airport application for a northern runway because it’s a new runway and will have a significant and irreversible affect on the local environment, infrastructure and health and wellbeing of local residents, as follows: * the policy has been misinterpreted by the applicant as this is an application for a new runway which does not comply with policy, Government’s Aviation Strategy. Gatwick does not have 2 runways ‘existing’ that it can operate concurrently today, as such it is a new runway being constructed at night. * Increase in aircraft noise – evidence an additional 101,000 flights a year to a cap of 386,000. * Decline in air quality further as Gatwick ignores the impact of road and air emissions created by its operations. * Lack of affordable housing locally to enable workers to walk or cycle to work as the applicant proposes. Plus a lack of amenities eg hospitals, schools, at a time primary services are significantly strained, resulting in longer waiting times for all. * Low skilled jobs are offered with little job security due to the volatile nature of the airport’s leisure business. * Gatwick sits on a single main road, the M23 which is deemed an unsafe smart road. To add to the huge increase in freight, passengers and workers will cause a significant increase in congestion on residential roads and an inevitable decline in air quality and health. * The airport sits on the Brighton Main Line, which cannot be expanded. Gatwick seeks to add an unacceptable burden to the line with over 32m extra passengers and luggage. * 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. * Potential for flooding and sewage entering the river system again travelling to the River Arun.