Representation by Peter Alan Jones
- Date submitted
- 19 November 2023
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
Application by Gatwick Airport Limited for an Order Granting Development Consent for the Gatwick Airport Northern Runway Project Registration of Interested Party and Objections I’m writing to be registered as an Interested Party in the above Gatwick application and to raise my concerns and objections: 'New jobs’ New jobs will be mainly zero hours and/or low paid and salaries will be largely insufficient to base a mortgage for living in the area or travel long distances from other areas. Any employment boost would be mainly short-term and insecure, particularly taking into account moves towards increased automation and as Covid showed, such employment can be precarious. This precarious nature will be exacerbated by the impacts of climate change and the increasing need to curtail air travel to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Gatwick is currently unable to fill vacancies at the airport and there is no guarantee that contractors used for work in the construction would be local Local impact The construction phase would be up to 15 years and Horley will seriously impacted by such a huge building site. House prices and mortgage viability are already being impacted. Residents may need to be relocated from their homes during the construction period. Part of Riverside Park would be lost and some residential areas would end up right next to the main road. Transport There would be a huge increase in traffic and congestion on local roads Proposed active transport plans (bus, train, cycle, walking) are insufficient and the project would not provide any extra rail services, for example. Increased off-airport ‘nuisance’ parking - i.e. on residential roads, which is already a big problem in the area. Noise There would be a significant increase in aircraft noise for those 1. living and/or working near the airport 2. living and/or working further away under flight paths. There would be more road noise from additional lane, larger roundabout out and increase in traffic 15 years of noise from large construction area The proposed noise envelope for Gatwick is not consistent with government policy or industry guidelines. Water & Flooding The area is a floodplain and at higher risk of serious flooding with increasing extreme weather events caused by worsening climate change impacts Inadequate mitigation measures, using 40 years where it should be 100 years for risk planning. Large additional water needs, which are not addressed by the plans. Increased waste water processing demands, which are not addressed by plans. River Mole would be impacted and it is already classed as ‘poor’ Economic and ‘need’ case Economic benefits have been overstated whilst costs have been ignored and/or understated. Benefits are based on growth in business travel but this is not happening - growth is only in leisure flights which take money out of the UK economy rather than bringing it in and leisure air travel must be at medium and longer term risk due to the worsening impact of greenhouse gas emissions and pollution. The only people to benefit would be Gatwick's shareholders but even they are not immune to the negative impact of climate change. The overall case for expansion does not comply with the Airports National Policy Statement Carbon emissions and air pollution The increase in air traffic would lead to a big and unacceptable increase in CO2 / greenhouse gas emissions and have other negative climate effects associated with airport operations and flights. There would be an increase in CO2 emissions and other climate effects associated with construction works and increased road traffic to the airport. There are currently no proven technologies for reducing aviation emissions at scale. There would be unacceptable air pollution increases from increased flights/traffic, while measurement is poor and modelling inaccurate