A presentation will be given to the committee in relation to Luton Airport.
Minutes:
Councillor Anderson asked Councillor Timmis to make her presentation. He said she was here tonight as a member of the London Luton Airport Consultative Committee who has played a part in lobbing the airport on behalf of Dacorum.
Councillor Timmis statement:
Luton Airport is in Bedfordshire and owned by Luton Borough Council, who get a cool annual rent of £29 million. Over the last five years it has been getting rapidly busier and continues to do so. There are now approximately 75,000 aircraft flying out of Luton Airport a year; 70% of these planes depart on the Westerly flight path between Flamstead and Markyate. The noise pollution, especially during the summer months, affects a large number of those living in both villages both day and night and will only get worse as passenger numbers increase from the present 13.5 million to an estimated 18 million by 2020.
The airport has used new technology to ensure planes keep to a more precise flight path, but rather than mitigating the noise it has tended to concentrate it. The sheer increase in the number of flights and the low climb of the aircraft counter any benefits. At present there is a very complicated system of flight control in our skies as Heathrow, Stansted, Northolt and City airports share the skies around Luton. It is very busy up there. To keep safe, Air Traffic Control keeps planes separated by height, and so Luton planes have to take off at a lower angle to remain at a lower level until they are out of the area. They are trying to achieve better coordination in the near future so that Luton planes can take off at a steeper angle, resulting in them being higher over the villages and therefore less intrusive; provided of course this does not increase our noise burden due to increase throttle settings. There is a longer term aspiration for slightly quitter aircraft, and in another 15-20 years the possibility of a complete review of the London airspace.
Presently, the financial benefits of the airport accrue to Bedfordshire and Luton Borough Council, whilst the noise and air pollution impacts falls largely on Hertfordshire.
My hope in bringing your attention to the noise and air pollution suffered by those living in Markyate and Flamstead is to persuade you that we must do all we can at present to apply pressure for change, and in the long term we must consider pressing for a complete re-think of the westerly departure routes to avoid Dacorum altogether so that our communities are not blighted for years to come.
Councillor Anderson then invited Andrew Lambourne from LADACAN to give his presentation.
A Lambourne introduced his presentation by saying that LADACAN (Luton and District Association for the Control of Aircraft Noise) was a residents association involving residents all around the airport. He said his presentation was to give members some background information and to help apply pressure on the airport on behalf of the residents.
Key points of the presentation:
- Luton Borough Council (LBC) owns the Luton Airport infrastructure and is also the local planning authority. The decision to expand was granted in 2013. It was designed in increase the capacity of the airport and included new taxiways. This increased the rate of which planes can use the runway and increased the number of flights per hour without extending or adding a runway.
- The projected targets were a doubling of annual passengers (from 9 million to 18 million) and a 60% increase in flights (100k to 160k) by 2028. To increase the number of passengers without adding a runway would mean that airlines would need to deploy larger aircraft and Airbus A320/1’s are becoming more common. These are larger, heavier and noiser. A Lambourne said he attended the planning meeting and the members acknowledged that there would be a significant environmental impact but it was a political decision as it is government policy to extend airport capacity. There were a number of planning conditions which were reasonably sensible at addressing resident concerns.
- Three routes go across the north of the borough which equates to about 70% of all flights as aircraft must take off into the wind and the wind is predominately westerly.
- The airport gets busier each year and the double capacity target is due to be reached by 2020. This is a worry because the idea was for airlines to invest in quieter aircraft between 2013 and 2028. We are expecting quieter aircraft at the end of the year but it is clear that capacity is overtaking investment. If the airport hits 18 million passengers by 2020, are they going to want to apply for further capacity?
- EasyJet doesn’t quite match the expansion of Wizz who mainly serve Eastern Europe and so the aircraft turn east out of Luton.
- It is clear that the airport has started filling in the quieter hours with flights. Between 9am – 10am now has significantly more flights. Local councillors have experienced increased complaints from constituents as there are more flights outside of working hours especially towards the end of the day as airlines attempt to turn aircraft around three times a day.
- 2016 was Luton airport’s busiest ever year with an average of 409 flights a day compared to 369 in 2015. Passenger numbers have increased 15% year on year in Q3 2016. Average passengers numbers is 48,909 per day compared to 42,408 in 2015. This increase will affect Dacorum as these passengers need to travel to the airport so will be using the motorways and trains adding to congestion and pollution problems. The increase in noise complaints has more than doubled and new complaints have increased by a factor of four.
- The airport will not turn away business and the routes cannot be changed as they interlock with Heathrow and Stansted. The rate of climb could be higher but the concentration of flights creates a wall of noise between Harpenden, St Albans and Hemel Hempstead.
- One suggestion for the committee is to consider engaging with the airport operators over plans to climb faster as this will increase the throttle and therefore increase the noise. It has been suggested at various committees to have a careful and professional noise monitoring report before and after the changes to see if there is any real impact.
- LADACAN are looking at possibility of financial compensation as Luton airport create a ‘road in the sky’ when the tracks are tightened.
- Airlines are fined if flights exceed defined noise limits. The noise is measured at fixed monitors at the Dacorum border. Currently, only around 10 flights (0.05%) are fined each quarter and this is hardly an incentive for airlines to invest in quieter aircraft.
Questions and answers
Councillor Hicks said he represented Tring and the area of Hastoe which is the highest point in Hertfordshire and under the flight path. If the day becomes fuller with flights, will there an increase in night flights?
A Lambourne said Eastern European flights from Moldova and Romania tend to be the night flights and the flight path over Hastoe serves Northern England and Ireland which has less demand.
Councillor Hicks asked how Luton airport compared to Heathrow with night flights.
A Lambourne said that Luton airport was not a designated airport so is not covered by government regulations on night flights. This means they have a 24 hour operating licence.
Councillor G Sutton asked how quiet the new aircraft would be in decibels.
A Lambourne said that in his opinion, it wouldn’t significantly reduce the noise. However, if you reduce the noise by 3 decibels then that can half the noise experienced by residents. People cannot tell the difference between 73 and 70 decibels and the violation levels are set at 80 decibels at night and 82 during the day. When the new quieter aircraft arrive, we can monitor noise levels in 2018.
Councillor Anderson said there was a difficult balance between economic development and environmental quality of life. He asked what other councils are doing about the noise issues.
A Lambourne said Anne Main, the MP for St Albans, has written letters about the effect of the tracks and a review is due in August. The councils affected have an opportunity to make formal representations to the aircraft operator.
Outcome
Councillor Anderson suggested a couple of proposals for the committee to consider:
1) Ask the Portfolio Holder to write to Luton Airport to express concerns over the increased noise pollution in Dacorum and ask if they would be willing to invite a group of councillors to discuss their concerns.
2) The Council contact Mike Penning MP and David Gauke MP to join Peter Lilley’s (MP for Hitchin and Harpenden) campaign to resolve the anomaly in the regulation of night flights at Luton Airport
These proposals were seconded by Councillor Hicks and agreed by the committee.
Councillor Anderson thanked A Lambourne and Councillor Timmis for attending and giving their presentations.