“With the delayed decision we are still left in a minefield of uncertainty and this will affect local decisions which are being made right now, such as housing targets in local plans and investment in infrastructure. A final decision to rule out airport expansion in the South East should be made and it should be communicated soon.”
Earlier this year the Chairman of CPRE Sussex, David Johnson warned against any airport expansion in the south-east due to the major long-term environmental and health damage it would cause. Campaigners say a new runway at Gatwick would breach climate change targets and have pledged to continue to fight the lingering threat of expansion with a campaign of common sense.
“We will fight on,” says Sally Pavey, CPRE Trustee and Chair of CAGNE (Communities against Gatwick Noise and Emissions). “We have the key facts that we have presented time and time again, and we will go back and present them again.
“We have to try to re-address the North-south divide. Gatwick does not link up to any parts of the UK and we just have to keep reiterating that time and time again. We have to explain once again the climate change issue, because building a new runway at Gatwick will breach climate change targets. Gatwick is also not accountable for the light pollution it causes - nearly 13,000 people were harmfully affected by the noise of Gatwick night flights in 2014 that is a rise of 15% since the previous year. As part of our campaign we are urging people to complain about noise at night if they suffer light pollution as well.”
A second runway at Gatwick would radically change the face of West Sussex necessitating an estimated 45,000 new houses and a road network capable of taking an extra 1000,000 vehicles. The new Gatwick would be bigger than Heathrow is today, making it the UK’s largest airport.
“Airports are no longer publicly owned services like railway stations, but privatised assets owned by hedge funds and foreign investors to be traded like football clubs to maximise profit for shareholders not travelers,” Says David Johnson. “More airport capacity anywhere will mean more use of fossil fuels and continued global warming; can we not begin to understand where events like the devastating Storm Desmond came from?”
“It is time for politicians to look beyond short-term economic gain and take the long view.”
Photo © Anders Sandberg
