Gatwick 2nd runway plans must – and will – be opposed and rejected
Local community group, the Gatwick Area Conservation Campaign (GACC), say the proposed expansion of Gatwick, which it confirmed today, is unwelcome, unnecessary; if approved, it would have devastating consequences for the environment, local communities, and people living under flight paths, even many miles away. GACC – with local community groups – is relaunching its ‘Gatwick’s Big Enough’ campaign to fight the proposals. The plan to grow the airport’s capacity by between 40% and over 60% over the next 15 years involves use of new technology on the main runway, and re-aligning and widening the existing emergency (or standby) runway to form a 2nd runway. This will mean more noise, more local rail and road congestion, more air pollution and more carbon emissions. If it gets its way, Gatwick would be able to grow from 45 million passengers and 280,000 flights in 2018, to 74 million passengers and 390,000 flights over the next 15 years, nearly the size Heathrow is now. GACC says: “This proposal is unnecessary and ill conceived. It must and will be opposed and rejected.“
Gatwick 2nd runway plans must – and will – be opposed and rejected
GACC (Gatwick Area Conservation Campaign) press release
25th August 2021
The proposed expansion of Gatwick, confirmed today by the airport, is unwelcome, unnecessary and, if approved, would have devastating consequences for the environment, local communities, and people living under flight paths many miles away.
The Gatwick Area Conservation Campaign (GACC), with local community groups, is relaunching its ‘Gatwick’s Big Enough’ campaign to fight these proposals.
The plan to grow the airport’s capacity by between 40% and over 60% over the next fifteen years involves use of new technology on the main runway and re-aligning and widening the existing emergency (or standby) runway to form a second runway.
Despite claiming that it is no longer pursuing an additional full runway Gatwick also wishes to continue to blight residents living to the south of the airport with its demand to safeguard land from any other development.
The use of the emergency runway in conjunction with the main runway would mean more noise, more CO2 emissions and other climate impacts, more congestion on local infrastructure and poorer air quality. There would be serious health impacts for local communities and those under flight paths and severe effects on a local infrastructure already overburdened as a result of past growth.
If it gets its way, Gatwick would be able to grow from 45 million passengers and 280,000 flights in 2018, to 74 million passengers and 390,000 flights over the next 15 years, nearly the size of Heathrow.
Chairman of GACC, Peter Barclay, said “There is no need or other case for expansion at Gatwick. GACC and other local community groups have met and unanimously agreed to challenge these proposals as robustly as possible. The world now knows that aviation’s growth has climate consequences that it simply can’t afford, and serious adverse local impacts on health through noise and air pollution. This proposal is unnecessary and ill conceived.
“It must and will be opposed and rejected.“
For further information contact :
Peter Barclay
See earlier:
Gatwick announces plans to bring its standby runway into routine use
Gatwick airport has announced that it will start a 12 week consultation, from the 9th September to the 1st December, on its plans to modify and alter the current standby runway, for use as another runway. This consultation comes before Gatwick submits an application to the Planning Inspectorate for a Development Consent Order (DCO) for the expansion. This is necessary because, under the Planning Act ? 2012, any airport application that will result in more than 10 million more annual passengers, and thus be considered to be a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project, has to go through the DCO process, rather than the conventional planning application to the local authority. Details of the consultation and its contents will be published on 9th September, but it is thought that materials will be entirely – or almost entirely – online. This application for a huge increase in annual air passengers, and thus inevitably an increase in carbon emissions, comes before the UK hosts the COP26 climate talks, and the IPCC has warned about just how serious the climate change situation is – including the urgency of the need to cut carbon emissions.
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