Council calls for night flights limit
24.01.09
Councillors in St Albans have called for restrictions to be put on the number of night flights at Luton Airport. The call comes after it was revealled that the airport has put back the bi-annual review of it night flight noise by a year. At a meeting of the District Council last week, concerns about night noise were raised by those representing residents in Harpenden and Wheathamstead, who are worst affected by night noise.
Judy Shardlow, councillor for Wheathampstead and the council's member of the London Luton Airport Consultative Committee (LLACC), told other councillors that other airports in the south east including Gatwick and Stansted are limited by the Department for Transport to a fixed number of flights between 23:00 and 06:00. However there has not been any regulation set on Luton Airport, which she said has seem a steady rise in night flights under its self regulated night noise policy.
Councillor Shardlow told the meeting: ‘Over the last five years the night-time noise contour from Luton Airport has increase by a staggering 66%, and last quarter 111 people complained about night noise, an increase of 66% on the same time last year. Local people have had enough of the current entirely flimsy voluntary night noise policy. It provides Luton Airport with the ability to fly as many aircraft out of Luton as they can squeeze in.’
‘The airport has been getting away with unregulated numbers of night flights for years and it's about time it stopped. I will be giving the consultative committee 100% support in the formulation of a more robust night noise policy, and I will be lobbying the Department for Transport to bring Luton Airport in line with other airports operating near residential areas.’
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