Complaints up six-fold during Heathrow runway trial (From Your Local Guardian)
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Complaints up six-fold during Heathrow runway trial
11:30am Thursday 16th February 2012 in Richmond By Paul Teed
Flights: Vince Cable warned of a major battle to come
Heathrow’s controversial runway trials have led to a six-fold increase in the number of complaints about aircraft noise.
The airport has been carrying out a four month test in which it can use one runway simultaneously for arrivals and departures when they face a 10-minute wait to land or take off, or if 30 per cent of all planes are running more than 15 minutes late.
BAA insisted in December that the measures had not led to any additional flights, but a prevailing easterly wind had caused some households to suffer more aircraft noise.
Twickenham MP Vince Cable, who warned of a major battle between residents and BAA if the trials caused more disruption, wrote to Aviation Minister Theresa Villiers after constituents in Twickenham, Teddington, Hampton, Whitton and Heathfield flooded him with letters.
According to BAA figures, Heathrow handled 480 noise complaints in the first month of the pilot scheme compared with 75 during November, 2010. In December, there were 283 complaints compared with about 75 in December 2010.
A spokeswoman for BAA said this week: “BAA has worked to maintain an open dialogue with local residents on the operational freedoms trial.
“Three-hundred thousand households - approximately 750,000 people - in the west London area were leafleted about the trial last autumn. Seventy-five people, or 0.025 per cent of households, contacted Heathrow during December to make a noise complaint directly referencing the trial.
“After the first part of the trial is completed on February 29, 2012, we will be able to share more findings and have a greater understanding of the impact of the trial on local communities.”
The Government granted Heathrow greater flexibility to use both runways simultaneously during the two trials in a bid to reduce aircraft traffic.
Heathrow started its first test on November 1 and will finish it on February 29. It will carry out a second during next summer’s Olympics, when an estimated 500,000 visitors are expected to travel through the airport.
Heathrow normally alternates the use of its two runways, with planes landing on one and taking off from the other until 3pm each day. Aircraft then switch over to vary the noise that residents living under the flight paths are subjected to.
Comments(2)
MattthewJohn
says...
1:29pm Sun 19 Feb 12
Whilst it is good to hear that you are unaffected by the trials, those of us who live a little closer to the flight paths who are getting awoken by daily 4am landings might consider your view that this is a hysterical scare story both ill informed and insensitive.
You need to be aware that for people who are affected this is a big issue as it affects our home lives and our families
Comments like these are at best pointless, irritating and unhelpful - which I can only assume was the original intention of your post.
NickB12 says...
3:48pm Thu 16 Feb 12
However it was full of misinformation asserting that planes would be coming into land over Hampton/ Teddington - as well as taking off at the same time.
I suspect that this rise in complaints is largely due to a hysterical scare story rather than based on any factual experience as Hampton and Teddington will NEVER have be subject to landing noise due to their location; and planes only go in one direction - that determined by the wind - which 70% of the time means we get very little if any noise from departing traffic.