Saturday, February 02, 2008

To Be Or Not To Be - A Public Safety Zone


A public safety zone is an area which stretches out at each end of the runway in a long triangular shape. This area will get wider and longer with expansion and will cover 100s of homes that were previously not covered by the PSZ.

The area is mapped out this way as it indicates that it is at high risk of being affected by a major incident at take off or landing of planes. Planes are at more risk of an accident at take off and landing than at any of time of operation. If an incident happened in the LCA PSZ area there would be massive loss of structures and lives.

Click here to see PSZ Map

Click here to see the list of incidents at London City Airport.

A public safety zone is only a safety zone if it is free of homes or workplaces - even recreational space. The public safety zone is only 'safe' if it is empty - and that is why new homes, extensions, workplaces and recreation areas are not allowed to be built in the zone.

But what about the houses that are going to find themselves in the new public safety zone mapped area?

Well clearly if there are 100s of homes in a public safety zone, then it makes it a 'public danger zone' - risk to life is far greater in that area than in any other.

But don't worry - the London City Consultative Committee Secretary says it is fine for people to live in a PSZ if it extends over existing housing, as does Cllr Peter Brooks, Deputy Leader of Greenwich Council - he responded to one of our campaigners that people could live perfectly 'normally' in the PSZ area.

Fight the Flights suspects that neither of those individuals lives in a PSZ area. It's easy to say to others "do as I say, not as I do" isn't it?