Monday, March 03, 2008

Where's Our Democracy Newham Council?

The very reason why Fight the Flights got together was because local democracy had been thrown out of the window by Newham, not once, but twice in relation to London City Airports cloud cuckoo land applications.

Thousands of residents across the boroughs, who are going to be affected by increasingly loud levels of noise and pollution, by the proposed expansion of flights at London City Airport have NOT been consulted by Newham Planning on the latest application, nor the application that was approved in January 2007.

Noise management by LCA WILL NOT address the majority of households which will suffer from increased noise levels, and it means nothing more than sealing you into your own homes - with the added running costs of mechanical ventilation.

Newham Council must have thought it nothing more than an inconvenience to have to consult with us ALL, so they just didn't bother. Perhaps they had already made their minds up and didn't see the point in consulting? Who knows.

So we find ourselves sharing some similarities with the core of the argument over the Heathrow farcical consultation and the one handed out by Newham. Frustrated about Newham ignoring your right to a democratic process and ignoring you? It adds to the communities complete sense of alienation and feeling that the processes are so unjust, not just in Newham but also in the neighbouring boroughs where Newham spectacularly ignored thousands of thousands of residents.

Plane Stupid were frustrated about the lack of democracy and how people who had been so called 'consulted' regarding Heathrow had been misled and given documents they couldn't understand - here's what they feel they have been pushed to do to get their and thousands of other people's voices heard.

It's a sad state of political affairs that our democracy is being eroded in this way by paid public servants who should know better.