Campaigners unhappy at airport night noise review delay
23.01.09
Despite the fact that up to 10,000 people could be affected by night-time aircraft noise, Luton Airport has delayed a review of the issue, the Herts Advertiser reports. John Davis from the campaign group LADACAN (Luton and District Association for the Control of Aircraft Noise), told the newspaper that campaigners are furious that the two-yearly review of its night-noise policy has been put back by a year.
The airport's managing director Glyn Jones wrote to LADACAN and other members of the Noise & Track Sub-Committee announcing his intention to postpone the review date until March 2010. Mr Davis told the Advertiser: ‘We have been told the airport masterplan will not be ready by March so they would not be in a position to discuss its night-noise policy.'
'This is irrelevant and is just a flimsy excuse to duck the issue for another year. Night-noise has been getting steadily worse over the last 5 years, the area and number of people badly affected both increasing with almost twice the number of night flights since 2000.’
The decision has so angered the committee members that they have decided to go ahead and hold their own meeting next Tuesday (January 27), to produce recommendations on how the problems of night noise could be addressed.
Jo-Ann Lloyd of Luton Airport defended its decision. She told the newspaper: ‘In 2000 there were just over 10,500 night flights whereas in 2007 there were just 9,900 aircraft movements - a reduction of 6%.’ She added that Luton has the lowest night-noise violation limit of all of the major London airports.
However, Mr Davis said the footprint was up by 66% in the last 5 years. He said certain noisy aircraft types - banned from use 5 years ago - made it seem as though there was a reduction in figures from 2000.
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