Full report can be found at - http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/33/CAP1346PIRREPORTNov2015.pdf [PDF]
“For a Government, in this day and age, to implement and subject residents to such a airspace concentrated system without any research into the noise readings or emissions from concentrated routes is beyond belief,” said Sally Pavey chair of CAGNE. “And the fact that they continue to hide behind such poor reports as this one should be seriously questioned by the Aviation Minister, Robert Goodwill, as to the true independence of the CAA from the aviation industry.”
The report is extremely disappointing for the residents of Sussex that suffer the concentrated flight paths as they give no consideration to the impact concentrated routes have on residents lives.
Copthorne may find the route SEAFORD tweaked to help with the concentration of flights but none of the other routes, that Sussex are blighted by, are to be improved for residents.
The CAA have worked from old maps of dispersed routes in the report and then compared them with the application of concentrated routes with no acknowledgement of the difference in impact from a plane occasionally to constantly.
“The noise shadow is far greater from a concentrated route than a dispersed route. It’s like having a country lane next to your home, which might see a few cars throughout the day and night, and changing it to the M1 overnight. The noise is relentless,” said Sally. “Until the aviation industry recognise that concentrated routes create noise shadows these reports are pointless as they serve only the aviation industry and not the taxpayers.”
The report is particularly disappointing for the residents of Slinfold and Southwater as their concerns are dismissed. The report expects residents to tolerate a 3% increase in noise and is done with no compensation or mitigation proposals by Gatwick Airport.
Dispersal is mentioned in the report but is dismissed without any evidence as to the impact that concentration are having on the environment ie people.
Concentrated flight paths were introduced with very little consultation in May 2014 on all departure routes out of Gatwick. The Government having undertaken no research to the health impacts that they would have on people’s lives nor mental state. These factors have cost implication, which are simply ignored by this CAA report.
