Representation by Lesley Richards
- Date submitted
- 19 November 2023
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
Dear Secretary of State Please reject the application for a Development Consent Order to effectively give Gatwick Airport a second runway. The proposals will mean unacceptably increased noise for residents close to the airport and under the flight path, increased air pollution, significant disruption and cost in accommodating additional unsustainable surface transport to and from the airport – and it is simply incompatible with the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the midst of a climate crisis. The economic costs of Gatwick expansion run into billions of pounds – and they will largely fall on the taxpayer and society at large, rather than the aviation industry. Analysis in 2022 estimated that the cost of cleaning up carbon emissions alone from Gatwick expansion will be £9.1 billion, of which only 7% will be paid for by the aviation industry. [1] The health and wellbeing costs will be significant too. In addition to increased noise and light pollution from further aircraft movements, air quality – already poor – is likely to be made worse by additional flights and increased surface transport. Research has identified levels of air pollution close to Gatwick that are already “similar to those measured close to a highly trafficked road in central London”, with noise pollution levels above those recommended by the World Health Organisation. [2] Critically, the expansion of Gatwick is fundamentally incompatible with the scientific evidence around global heating. The Government’s own advisers at the Committee on Climate Change have made clear that “there should be no net airport expansion across the UK.” [3] At present, the Jet Zero ‘plan’ to reduce aviation’s carbon-intensity amounts largely to crossing our fingers about technologies that do not yet exist, or have not been demonstrated at scale. With Sussex, and the wider world already experiencing the devastating effects of heatwaves, drought and water shortages and of flooding and biodiversity loss, we cannot afford to make things worse. Finally, the manner in which the application process has been conducted – with limited meaningful consultation and thousands of pages of documents only released to the public very late in the day – has been a travesty of democracy, with residents and their local councillors given little scope to have a real say. We ask that you turn down Gatwick’s expansion plans and embrace a greener future for Sussex and our transport system. References: [1] New Economics Foundation Public to foot £62bn bill for climate damage from airport expansions https://neweconomics.org/2022/01/public-to-foot-62bn-bill-for-climate-damage-from-airport-expansions [2] Tremper et al. Sources of particle number concentration and noise near London Gatwick Airport https://spiral.imperial.ac.uk/handle/10044/1/94356 [3] Committee on Climate Change 2023 Progress Report to Parliament https://www.theccc.org.uk/publication/2023-progress-report-to-parliament/