Are NATS Misleading Boris Over London City Airport Flight Path Changes?

Months ago, the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson was asked by FTF to pledge his support for a public review into the flight path changes which the CAA and NATS had already implemented, but which the CAA are carrying out a 'private review' of. The Mayor did indeed pledge his support for a public review.

We asked Boris to ensure that this private review would be a public review. Boris replied on 14 May, however the response indicates that he may have been misled or perhaps there has simply been an misunderstanding regarding the situation with the CAA's 'private review'.

The Mayor responded:

National Air Traffic Services (NATS) announced in October 2009 that it will be undertaking a new consultation, on behalf of the CAA, on revised proposals for aircraft routes and airspace management in the area of South East England, referred to as Terminal Control North. This follows the consultation undertaken in 2008.

My officers have spoken to the stakeholder relations team at NATS. However, at this stage I have no further information regarding the scope of the proposals, as NATS does not expect the consultation to start before September at the earliest, due to the need to undertake further analysis.  NATS will be consulting the local authorities affected by the proposals, and I have given a commitment that I will work with the London Boroughs and the London Assembly to ensure that these proposals are widely and robustly considered. I will also work with NATS to ensure that these proposals are more widely publicised.

Well that all sounds great. However the key point that we asked the Mayor to ensure was that the CURRENT private review which the CAA are already carrying out on the London City Airport flight path changes was made public. This point has failed to be addressed and instead it appears that NATS may have misled the Mayor by indicating that a re-consultation is going to happen in September.  So now the Mayor believes that NATS are going to reconsult on the LCY flight path changes which were implemented in 2009. 

They are not and FTF have been told this by the Director of Airspace Policy at the CAA. So why has NATS misinformed the Mayor in this way?.

NATS are indeed to re-consult on the other flight paths from airports in the South East which were included in the original TCN document, as we have written before, but not the LCA flight path which was implemented last year, and which has caused no end of disturbance and upset to thousands of East London households.

So despite Boris's pledge, we haven't seen any evidence in the response to confirm that the CAA have been asked to carry out a public review rather than a private one, and we now also see the Mayor being misled into believing that the very flight path which has been so controversial is to be reconsulted upon - when it is not. 

Why not contact the Mayor and ask him to fulfil the pledge he made to a packed Ilford auditorium at the Mayor's Environmental Question Time? You can email him: mayor@london.gov.uk

Boris gets confused again! A contradiction in terms in East London

How can a Green Enterprise exhibition and conference centre and London City Airport be put in the same article? At first view the idea of an exhibition and conference centre that uses Green materials and promotes positive environmental schemes seems like a fantastic idea that could bring new green enterprises to the East part of London. But building something like this right beside London City Airport which flies in the face of anything Green locally or even Globally is complete madness. Just like allowing the expansion in one of the most densely populated areas in the UK! Firstly with noise levels that regularly exceed 80db how are you to enjoy the environment? Secondly Silvertown and Britannia Village have a constant stench of Jet fuel that is left from standing and over flying aircraft from London City Airport.

We think that Boris Johnson has either been duped by Sir Robin Wales or more than likely he has just no idea what living or working beside London City Airport is really like.

You can read an article about the proposals Here in the East London Advertiser.

"PLANS have been revealed today for a £30 million 'Green Enterprise' exhibition and conference centre in East London.

The 'iconic' three-storey pavilion for the Royal Docks, near the ExCeL centre and London City airport, would be a permanent showcase for 'sustainable technologies' for a low carbon 21st century society.

It will be at the heart of a 'Green Enterprise District' being set up across East London to regenerate undeveloped industrial land to attract new investment, in a project announced by London Mayor Boris Johnson and Newham's mayor Sir Robin Wales.

Sir Robin said: "Nowhere else in Britain is undergoing transformation on the scale of East London. There is huge potential for investment and prosperity."

The centre will include a public exhibition, 300-seat auditorium and educational facilities with interactive exhibits, a café and shop.

A consortium is being put together by Siemens engineering and technology group to design and build the 'pavilion' covering nearly 40,000sq ft.

The structure, built with recycled steel and industrial by-product cement, will maximise natural daylight using high performance glazing, photovoltaic panels and energy efficient lighting.

Its design includes 'rainwater harvesting', ground source heat pumps and solar water heating. The centre is expected to be open early in 2012."

Press Release: City Airport admits it got its sums wrong

Estimated number of jobs created by expansion cut by 50%

London City Airport has admitted that it over-estimated the number of jobs which would be created by the proposed expansion of the airport by 50%. In a letter to local MP Stephen Timms, seen by the pressure group Fight the Flights, Newham Council reveals that the Airport now acknowledges that there will only be 480 new jobs.

A letter says that “The Airport itself now accepts that the application was lodged before the current economic downturn, bringing with it a downturn in demand for air travel, and that additional employment to the extent shown in the original application is unlikely now to be realised by 2010.”

Newham Council recently gave London City Airport permission to increase the number of flights using the airport by 50%.

A spokesperson from Fight the Flights, said, “Newham Council has always argued it favoured expansion because of the number of jobs it would create. Now we discover it is no more than work in a big superstore. Yet, the extra noise caused by the planes will bring misery to tens of thousands.”

ENDS

For further information:

fighttheflights@yahoo.co.uk

Press Release dated: 24 August 2009

Dave Hill Blogs on the Politics of City Airport

Dave Hill of The Guardian went to meet Sir Robin Wales, Mayor of Newham today.

According to Dave, Sir Robin's office in Building 1000 has: 'a perfect view of the airport runway'. You can read more here on the 'Politics of City Airport'.

London City Airport Jobs: False Hopes, Cruel Hoax

The disingenuous London City Airport continues to be revealed as purposely feeding the communities with inaccurate and misleading information in a bid to quell objections. And what for? To get what they want: a load of money at the expense of residents suffering from ill health, and decreased educational attainment all from increasing pollution levels.

We all know the biggest stick and carrot an airport can wave at gullible and ill informed councils is the promise of job creation. Oh and isn't that emotive in a borough that has high unemployment levels even when the rest of the country levels had been relatively low!

You see, the poorly skilled elected officials at the London Borough of Newham chose to overlook the previous multitude of broken promises from London City Airport on many issues, including on the job creation front. LB Newham are however rather quick to help LCA on making out that there are more jobs for Newham residents than there actually are - that is how desparate Sir Robin Wales is to not let down his mate and alleged fellow funny hand shaker! You can read about the lies and broken promises about jobs here and here.

But using jobs as bait in a bid to get harmful aviation expansion approved is not unique to London City Airport. We cordially invite you to read an excellent piece of work recently written by Brendon Sewell: Airport Jobs: False Hopes, Cruel Hoax.

It doesn't have London City Airports data but that is probably because job statistics from the airport, although legally required under the Section 106 by the LB Newham are like trying to access a document under the official secrets act. A recent FOI request to Newham was rejected because apparently the airport only has this data. We don't think so! We know Newham have this data, but simply don't want to release it because it yet again proves the point that the airport has indeed given false hopes over the years, which have indeed ended up as cruel hoaxes to local residents.

And if you are a resident who believes the likes of that ignoramous Stephen Timms MP and is confident in just how much locals have benefited from 'direct employment' at the airport (not from the guy who grinds the flour, that makes the bread, that ends up in Bewleys bread but whom lives 200 miles away for instance!)as a result of its expansion, we invite you to ask LB Newham for the annual statistics and breakdown of employees by borough, salary ranges, and contract types? It wont make for comfortable reading for you at all.

London City Airport Larger Noiser Planes, E-190 Trials Expected Sat 28 March

Remember when London City Airport's disingenous Chief Executive Richard Gooding said there wouldn't be bigger planes at London City Airport?

Never trust him or London City Airport as the LIE whenever they think they can get away with it.

The Embraer E-190 is a bigger plane, and is expected to be operating trials at London City Airport on Saturday so that it can gain certification. This is to replace the RJ-100's and RJ-85's that currently fly in and out of London City Airport for BA and other carriers. The RJ series of plane is also the plane that had the crash landing incident back in Feb 2009 when the front landing gear collapsed from a hard landing. This it seems is not uncommon if you go to You Tube and type in "London City Airport hard landings". These are only the ones that have been filmed, how many more have there been?
The Airbus 318 is the other new larger, noiser Jet that British Airways hope to be using for first class flights to New York at the end of this year.

FIRST CLASS FLIGHTS - FIRST CLASS POLLUTION

If you would like to hear how things will be for east and south east Londoners if the "RUNAWAY" expansion at London City Airport that Sir Robin Wales and his substandard councillors support, at ANY COST, then why not take a trip down to the Royal Docks this Saturday?

Cameras, camcorders and noise readers at the ready......

Robin Wales - Confronted Over London City Airport

In the recent explosive Mayoral 'question time' in Beckton , 'Sir' Robin Wales was questioned about London City Airport.

Before he was questioned he did a little self PR about 0% council tax rises. Don't let this fool you though! The average income for a household in Newham is £27,600, compared with £34,625 for London as a whole. So the average Newham family receives 76% LESS than these families passing through London City Airport £27,600 Vs, £116,000 and puts up with all the noise and air pollution for the pleasure.

He also tried to shout down the questioner for bringing up the 16 homes owned by a Beckton Cllr sitting in the front row of the meeting and the 5600 homeless families in Newham.

He was asked what he was most ashamed of...

(a) Why the children's choir that sung at the beginning of the meeting and that he was happy to be photographed with , why then was he happy to let them be continually exposed to choking Nitrogen Dioxide gases 50% higher than acceptable EU levels from London City Airport.
(b) Why was it acceptable for the children's education to be continually interrupted by noise from LCA - much of which is unmonitored and in breach of World Health Organisation levels.
(c) Why do LCA airport receive over £5 million a year of Tax Payers money for security and policing while crime is up in Beckton and Royal docks area and they are closing down the local police station.
(d) Why he spent over £100 MILLION of tax payers money to buy Building 1000 beside LCA even though it was classed as not fit for purpose.In fact a bit like HIMSELF!

Anyway the usual word answers came from his mouth saying that things are "not perfect at the airport, but jobs were created and this was the most important".

Then why, oh why has this happened......

Since 2005 - the date of the winning bid - the Government has been working its fingers to the bone issuing new national insurance numbers in Newham to workers taking up the new opportunities British taxpayers and British lottery payers are financing.

But what do the facts tell us? Since 2005 more than 50,000 national insurance numbers have been issued in Newham, and if you click here you can read the ever practical Frank Field's take on it all:

Suddenly Robin Wales isn't that interested in jobs for Newham people (except at the airport when it comes to planning applications: in all but words, and certainly not deeds!) It really is shameful.

Even Worse now, is it has come to light that the vast amount of workers at CityJet get paid in EUROS and their jobs and taxes are through DUBLIN!! Cityjet are one of the largest employers at the airport.

So why wasn't this declared and looked into at the expansion proposal? Probably because the true number of Newham residents employed by the airport has never been disclosed by the airport or Newham as it is so pitiful.

But when the airport and 'Sir' Robin Wales has good friends like Stephen Timms MP, that useless waste of space of a junior minister in government who supported a higher tax for the lowest earners, then it helps. Clearly anything can be 'pushed through' if it means that more of the higher tax band payers (the better off) can travel from an area (Newham) where the lowest earners pay proportionately MORE tax on their incomes, AND in addition PAY for LCA security out of their COUNCIL TAXES, whilst only dreaming of being able to use their 'local airport'! Oh, and don't forget the damage to their children's education and to their health that they have to incur as a result of the excessive noise levels.

Wales never answered the question in the end.

What should he be more ashamed of? Of course we know the answer. London City Airport.

Just How Toxic Is London City Airport?

About 50% more toxic than it should be according to EU limits.

In 2006 the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy published a report entitled: "Dangerous levels of toxic gas detected at most major airports" .The contents of the article are truly shocking, and yet it doesn't seem to have been addressed, to our knowledge, at all.

It found that "Levels of a toxic atmospheric pollutant exceed EU limits at most airports in England,". The most worrying was the indication that: "Over two thirds (16 out of 23) of the airports included in the CSP’s study recorded dangerously high levels of nitrogen dioxide – a noxious gas that irritates the airways of the lungs and causes breathing difficulties."

The EU says nitrogen dioxide levels need to stay below 40 micrograms per cubic metre of air (mcg/m3) to be safe, the readings at London City Airport were 50 per cent higher than the EU target. And if that were not enough, we can re-visit the issue of Newham having the highest rate of mortality in under 30s in England, and above average levels of asthma and other respiratory diseases:

Respiratory physiotherapists say the consequences of being exposed to the gas can be especially severe among people with existing lung conditions, like asthma, bronchitis and emphysema.

CSP spokesperson, Professor Grahame Pope, says:
... ‘There’s no doubt that aircraft contribute to the problem, but it should be noted that cars, buses and taxis ferrying passengers to and from these sites are dominant sources of pollution...

So what have the government and Newham done about these dangerous levels which expose EU targets? Nothing it seems, well that is apart from approving a 50% increase in flights, which will further increase nitrogen dioxide. But don't worry, RPS and the airport have said that everything will be ok, and that the pollution is nothing really to worry about!

So that's alright then. If you believe them that is.

Building 1000 Costs Public Over Two Million A Year

It couldn't get worse for the residents of Newham under the chaotic, disorganised and autocratic leadership of Newham Council. Building 1000 is a subject we've covered before. It is an office block built alongside the Royal Docks by London City Airport. It remained empty for years - obviously the airport had created such huge property and environmental blight on the building that nobody wanted to experience the delights of working in the area, let alone live in the area. Building 1000 momentarily had some use in it's years of sitting empty: it once appeared in a Post Office advert (now that's like a kiss of death) - and in 'Spooks'. It was noted that on each occasion the takes did not include aircraft landing and taking off in the background. They'd have had to do a voice over if so as the excessive noise levels of jets in the area would have stopped all recording.

But don't worry - Newham appears to have come to the rescue of Building 1000, and was happy to sacrifice an alledged 600 council jobs for the pleasure. But it gets worse: Newham appear to have seen fit to moving some of their staff into the blighted building, and you'd expect it to be good value being that nobody else wanted to move into it because of the environmental conditions surrounding it, wouldn't you? Oh no, Newham doesn't do 'economical' when it comes to trying to save face and appears to want to hide and deny that the whole of the area around the airport for a good few miles or so, is so blighted that few want to live or work there - except those connected to the airport- all couple of hundred of them. Clearly Building 1000 laying empty was an embarassment to Newham and their claims that the airport regenerates, when in fact, ummm it appears to stifle and stop regeneration in many ways.

A freedom of information request has revealed the staggering running costs for Building 1000 from 1st April 2008 to 30th November:

• Rates £993,300
• Insurance £85,379
• Cleaning £2,227
• Management Fee £1,171,053 *
  
  *This is the cost of the building management and facilities management contract which
  includes security costs

But of course, don't forget, the airport apparently doesn't cause property blight at all, even though other airports such as Stansted and Heathrow do on homes and businesses that are not connected to the aviation industry. It seems that London City Airport costs Newham Residents more than meets the eye, you can now add property blight to the list of 'bills'. Add this to all the security costs at the airport which London taxpayers pay in whole, and which Newham doesn't think that London City Airport should pay, and you'd be forgiven for feeling that this airport is continuously propped up by the public purse. In more ways than one. It seems that the airport not only relies on the public purse to run, it also severely stifles job growth in east London... and a healthy environment.

London City Airport Expansion Objectors Protest

See the Protest held and LB Newham Town Hall in October.
CLICK HERE and play Video Article on LCA Expansion.

LB Newham Building 1000 costs 600 jobs

This is an article from Unison Newham posted in April 2008. At a time that LB Newham & Sir Robin Wales justify inflicting an additional 46,000 residents to excessive noise levels on the basis of job creation, that never seem to appear. It seems that jobs are being lost due to the expansion of London City Airport. This building is situated right beside LCA's Runway and no private businesses wanted to move in due to the noise and pollution from the airport. Not an ideal place to live or work it seems and could explain why it remained empty for so many years.
Here's an example of how the airport stops employment coming to the area.

"Newham Council is sacking over 600 of its own workers and one of the reasons is to pay for its new headquarters in the Royal Docks. Building 1000 is costing Newham Council £75 million to buy and a further £20 million to refurbish. The money for this white elephant is being found by making over 600 loyal employees redundant.

At the same time as cutting hundreds of jobs the Council intends to carry on spending £millions on lavishly paid consultants who contribute little or nothing to Council services. In the last 12 months over £16 million has been wasted this way and this figure is likely to rise in 2008/9.

Shocked trade union officials were given the news of mass redundancies at a meeting with the Council’s Acting Chief Executive, Chris Wood, on Friday afternoon, 28th March.

Irene Stacey, Branch Secretary of Newham UNISON said:

“I am appalled by the Council’s decision to sack over 600 workers. This will as come as devastating news to hundreds of loyal staff and their families. There can be no justification for this policy of mass redundancies. Newham Council is showing itself to be callous and incompetent – callous because it doesn’t care about livelihoods of hundreds of loyal and dedicated staff; incompetent because of its ill-conceived decision to purchase a building it doesn’t need and can’t afford.”

UNISON has no intention of letting the Council get away with its policy of mass sackings. We will be calling meetings of all the sections affected and an emergency branch meeting to thrash out plans to defend every job. Our Branch Secretary is writing to all the other trade unions in the Council calling for a united stand against the Council’s plans – including, if necessary, strike action."

For more information contact Newham UNISON on
020 8555 9351

STOP PRESS: Private Eye's - Smart Alec

In the latest edition of Private Eye (28 Nov 08) you will find a rather interesting article in the 'Rotten Boroughs' section, p13 entitled 'Smart Alec'. Your local newsagent will happily sell you a copy of the genius publication for £1.50.

Regular readers of the Eye will be aware that Newham Council and Sir Robin Wales are a frequent feature in the Rotten Boroughs section - which is indicative of the less than healthy activities and interests that the local council seems to be happy to be promote and be part of. Other names mentioned are : Hill & Knowlton and Boris, Mayor of London.

"SMART ALEC"

"Last month Newham council voted in favour of allowing London City Airport to increase flights from 80,000 to 120,000 a year - an extra 150 flights a day. The protests of east London residents worried about noise , pollution and global warming were brushed aside. Anti-airport campaigners were dismayed at the about-turn of London mayor Boris Johnson, who had said he opposed the airport's expansion and then said he was actually in favour of it.

Newham labour councillor and City Airport consultative committee member Alec Kellaway is a big supporter of the airport, faithfully following the line of Newham mayor "Sir" Robin Wales that it is "good for jobs" andhelps regenerate the area. Alas , very little of the business that comes through the airport actually stays in the borough - although there are oppurtunities for cleaners.

City Airport earlier this year hired big-hitting PR firm Hill & Knowlton to spin its case. H&K is owned by the US media/PR conglomerate WPP - in which according to Newham council's register of members interests , Cllr Alec Kellaway happens to own shares worth more than £25,000. No conflict of interest there , then."

Newham & LCA Keep it in 'the family' - UPDATE - Cllr Alec Kellaway Looks After His Interests

Click on the image to enlarge.

When Cllr Alec Kellaway wrote in to support London City Airport's growth - he strangely omitted to say that he owned over £25K of shares in WPP.

WPP is a subsidiary of Hill & Knowlton - the PR alledged mercenaries - who have reportedly been paid a six figure sum - to 'push the application through' by London City Airport.

We feel a Standards Board complaint coming on.

Now just fancy that!

Mayor of London Tells Sir Robin - Follow the Rules. Don't be a Poodle!

Clearly when Fight the Flights went to City Hall, they made a clear presentation of the irresponsible, negligent and collusive behaviour between Newham Council and London City Airport. What's more we were able to provide the evidence. Not spin, like Newham and City Airport deal in, but hard facts and evidence.

So now we see Sir Robin Wales receive a clear message from the Mayor of London - enforce and start doing the job of monitoring the disingenous, weasel worded airport, rather than being their poodle.

Newham and London City Airport are clearly under growing public scrutiny, about time too. And there's more to come......

Enjoy the letter: click it to enlarge.

Aviation Gifts To Local Councillors - That's the way to do it!!

Times are hard.....

Cllr Ayesha Chowdhury
24/06/2008 - Visit to Dublin Airport (travel and refreshments): Name of donor; London City Airport Consultative Group
Cllr Richard Crawford
27/05/2008 - Goody Bag With Book And 2 Tickets To Car Show At Excel; Name of Donor: London City Airport;

Cllr Patricia Holland - Newham Planning Board
27/05/2008 - Complimentary Gift Bag; Name of Donor: Event sponsored by various airlines to commemorate the completion of new aircraft stands at City Airport, Royal Docks, E16
24/06/2008 - Visit to Dublin Airport (travel and refreshments): Name of donor; London City Airport Consultative Committee.
Cllr Ron Manley - Chair of Newham Planning Board
27/05/2008 - Complimentary Gift Bag; Name of Donor: Event sponsored by various airlines to commemorate the completion of new aircraft stands at City Airport, Royal Docks, E16 LCA Consultative Committee
Cllr Paul Schafer
27/05/2008 - Complimentary Gift Bag; Name of Donor: Event sponsored by various airlines to commemorate the completion of new aircraft stands at City Airport, Royal Docks, E16
Sir Robin Wales
12/09/2006 - Richard Gooding 40th Anniversary (Aviation Industry); Name of donor: Richard Gooding Yacht (Richard Gooding, CEO of London City Airport)
19/09/2007 - Hospitality received drinks and dinner; Name of donor: Newham Homes Board (Richard Gooding is Chair of Newham homes, board members include: Cllr Shafer, Cllr Manley who also just happened to get some freebies from LCACC! ).

Councillor's Manley, Holland and Schafer need to correct their entries, Cllr Crawford states the goody bag was from LCA, whilst they claim 'various airlines', which is it?? They should also complain about the missing items from their goody bags: book and 2 tickets to Excel, or did Cllr Crawford receive a different type of goody bag? You can only wonder at what freebies do in the world of local politics, they clearly affect the accurate recollection of contents and donors!

LB Newham Continues To Ignore It's Obligations

After months of asking LB Newham to monitor noise levels in their communities, residents are now coming to the conclusion that Newham don't want to know the real noise levels because they present an inconvenient truth. There are still no actual reliable noise readings for the communities around the airport after almost a year of residents asking.

London 21 and UCL carried out a noise mapping project in the Royal Docks during the Spring and the noise levels recorded, and averaged out far exceeded those 'estimates' by the airport. Since the discovery of the document which stated that London City Airport had not taken accurate noise data collection for 7 years residents have looked to Newham to fulfill the obligation.

Newham have attended a few homes with a handheld noise monitor - on one or two occasions taking just a few sets of readings in a short time period. To take representative readings such readings need to be taken at different times of the day - just as the London21 noise mapping project required. But considering LB Newham has a legal obligation to ensure that noise readings are taken, and LCA are incapable of doing this, then Newham should have themselves set up their own noise stations around the vicinity of the airport.

LB Newham have always had to be pursued by residents for weeks if not months before taking readings, which unfortunately have transpired as inadequate. Now it appears that some residents in the Royal Docks areas are being told that LB Newham is not willing to take further readings. This is despite the fact that the law is not on their side, and we suspect the ombudsman won't be either.

In the absence of LCA (and LB Newham) doing their job properly you'd think LB Newham would want to look after their council tax paying residents - but no, they appear to be too busy burying the bad news for the progress and benefit of business, and perhaps keeping their Mayor happy? That term 'Robinocracy' is spreading.

Newham Council Provides Free Advertising to LCA?

Newham Council is supposed to be in a consultation period over the London City Airport application to increase flights by 50% . You'd think they would want to remain completely impartial, have no associations with the applicant, not be seen to promote the business etc, wouldn't you?

We couldn't help but notice that Newham are now providing free advertising for LCA on the Newham website. Which is rather a lot more than Newham have done online to draw attention to the huge negative effects that any expansion will have on the communities surrounding the airport. But then that's no surprise to the many critics of Sir Robin's who like Richard Gooding is not showered with wisdom at the best of times.

So far Sir Robin Wales has treated concerned residents with utter contempt by continuing his silence over the whole issue but he clearly is quite happy to spend tax payers money on advertising for LCA. Sir Robin is clearly not a 'listening' mayor at all, well he certainly hasn't been replying to emails and letters over LCA for months now..well that's unless it's to big business it seems.

It is amazing who Sir Robin feels able to 'communicate' with isn't it?! It seems like a clear case of a conflict of interest whichever way you look at it.

Newham Council - Flouting the law in the face of neighbouring boroughs

We reported earlier this week, the good news that our resident campaigners in Thamesmead Moorings, Greenwich had finally received consultation letters from Newham Council Planning Department. This was following months of campaigners and other organisations putting pressure on Greenwich Council, Newham and various other decision makers regarding not being consulted on the expansion application (Greenwich was saying it wasn't their job to consult, and Newham was taking the same line).

We followed this news up by asking Newham Council if they were also going to write to residents in the other neighbouring boroughs, because as you know we are a coalition across the boroughs,Greenwich being just one of them.

Sadly Newham still intend to flout the Town and Country Planning Order (General Development Procedure) 1995 .

A Newham spokesperson stated that:
"We are not consulting other borough residents in the same way, the decision was made to directly consult the residents of Thamesmead following the receipt after christmas of the additional information that Newham Council had requested from the applicants".

So that's alright then.

Perhaps the neighbouring borough council's and residents may wish to take issue with Newham over that! Fight the Flights will of course be working hard on this issue too. Democracy and Town and Country Legislation is clearly not the order of the day in Newham Council. Will Sir Robin Wales stand up and explain exactly why that is, or perhaps others would like to ask him?

UPDATE: We have been politely asked to remove Sir Robin's photograph by the Head of Communications at Newham Council, it seems that Sir Robin is rather shy for a public figure, and we would not wish to embarrass him in any way.


But we are glad at least that Newham are reading this blog - Sir Robin might now make time to reply to the residents who have contacted him in the past few months but are still waiting for a response from him regarding the LCA application/consultation. We're an optimistic bunch at Fight the Flights, we believe this is just an administrative error at the Mayor's office which will soon be resolved.