Representation by Jeremy Mark Quin
- Date submitted
- 19 November 2023
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
I am responding as the Member of Parliament for the Horsham constituency. Expansion at Gatwick would have a significant impact on our local area and region for decades to come. I am deeply concerned with the failure of GAL to engage with the local and County Councils in a way that is appropriate for a scheme of this size with its huge potential ramifications. At the end of the pre-application phase local Councils continue to have substantive outstanding issues with DCO submission documents and this is a cause of grave concern for me as a local Member of Parliament. I cannot support the application in its current form as a number of significant concerns have not been satisfactorily addressed. This includes further evidence to show that the proposed expansion can be achieved within an acceptable environmental impact and can be achieved on a sustainable basis. The local community needs to understand the full import of GAL’s plans including on housing demand in an intensely tight market further (and necessarily) constrained by the impact of water neutrality. The potential increase in passenger and staffing numbers needs to be fully analysed in the context of increasingly constrained local transport infrastructure. For constituents in Horsham their nearest A&E facility is in Redhill (East Surrey Hospital). The journey time, under blue lights, let alone for visiting, is already regarded as too long by the vast majority of local residents. I am deeply concerned that the impact of millions of extra passenger and staff journeys will result in additional delays on getting emergency cases to hospital and could cost lives. This is a permanent worry regarding the impact of expansion but will be at its most acute in the “construction phase” which could last 14 years. We need to understand with absolute clarity the impact of extra congestion and the full set mitigations, up to and including a new hospital constructed south of Crawley to provide enhanced access to life-saving A&E facilities.