Luton Airport
An update will be provided at the meeting.
Minutes:
Councillor Timmis gave the committee an update on Luton Airport based on her attendance as a representative Councillor for Dacorum Borough Council (DBC) at the London Luton Airport Consultative Committee (LLACC, see www.llacc.com) and its Noise and Tracks Sub-Committee (NTSC).
Background
The Airport has been expanding far faster than anticipated when planning permission was granted in 2013 for a doubling of passenger capacity from 9m to 18m per annum by 2025. In 2017 the airport expects to have carried more than 14m passengers, and to reach its permitted 18m some 7 years earlier than expected. Annual flights will have risen to 140,000 by end 2017, up 40% on 2013, within 4 years rather than 10. This making Luton the 5th busiest and one of the fastest growing airports in the UK.
From their point of view this is a very positive increase in finance, business and they would argue, in the local (Luton) and national economy. The holding company LLAL, which owns the infrastructure on behalf of Luton Borough Council (LBC) in Bedfordshire, receives £34m per annum for the operating concession from the Airport Operators LLAOL, and dividends a large part of this to LBC as well as investing in a strategic land portfolio.
Environmental impact
Currently the airspace around Luton Airport is used for Luton Airport take offs and landings, stacking areas for Heathrow, and flights to or from Stansted, Northolt and City Airports, in three tiers. Luton airport has been assigned the lower of these tiers meaning that planes have to keep on a lower trajectory on take-off, so they are closer to the population on the ground and therefore noisier.
The major downside of increased LLAOL activity falls on Hertfordshire and in particular the Westerly flight path out of the Airport which accounts for 70% of flights (98,000) and affects disproportionately Markyate and Flamstead (which Councillor Timmis represents) as well as Redbourn and north Hemel Hempstead. Harpenden and St Albans residents have mounted fierce opposition to the noise and impact on their residents since it has been worsened by the introduction of a narrowed flight path using GPS-based navigation (RNAV).
This system is due to be extended onto all routes from Luton over the next 4-5 years, as part of an initiative to ensure Air Traffic Control safety of the ever more crowded skies.
Community groups have pointed out that government policy tends to favour concentration rather than dispersal of flights, which may be expedient in terms of using GPS navigation to control the ever-more crowded skies, but it does not necessarily guarantee that the objective of minimising the numbers of people affected by aircraft noise is met in a fair way: some people can face a great and increasingly concentrated environmental burden which more dispersed flight paths could even out.
Night flights have also been increased, as Luton has a 24-hour operating license, and the planning restraints set an upper movements limit designed to restrict growth, past the expected maximum.
Mitigating the impact