Representation by Christopher Harwood
- Date submitted
- 19 November 2023
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
I oppose the expansion of Gatwick Airport. On reading the report entitled Losing altitude - The economics of air transport in Great Britain. July 2023. It is very alarming to note that the Government is basing its thinking from the last ‘comprehensive review of the economic impacts of air transport was in 2012, trends in the British air transport sector have changed dramatically’. How can such a major expansion of an airport be considered when this economic review is now eleven years out of date? Noise and air pollution. From our home we hear and see aircraft flight paths day and night from both Heathrow and Gatwick and very worried about the release of more carbon with Gatwick expansion proposals. Planned increase in flights and road traffic will make air pollution worse. Gatwick airport should consider the impact of expansion at this time of mounting greenhouse gases, especially as a second runway it is proposed over 100,000 extra flights a year causing an estimated one million tons of extra carbon emissions a year, on top of those already produced from the main runway. Because Gatwick want to remodel the emergency runway rather than the construction of a full new runway. I read that apparently this circumvents having to go through the normal National Infrastructure Planning process. Clearly this design point is now under examination. Without an emergency runway anymore for practical safety reasons is there likely to be a further proposal for the building of a new emergency specific runway requiring yet more requisitioning of land?