Government Allows Heathrow to Bring MORE Misery to South and East London

Watch out pro-aviation expansion NIMBYS - it could all be coming to a sky near you!

As if London City Airport is not enough of a blight on the most densely populated area in the country, it seems that the 'government' become ever yet more disingenuous alongside the aviation sector to expand at ANY COST to communities or the environment.

Plans to increase the amount of flights to Heathrow is going to affect homes as far as 30 miles away from the airport. Of course in south and east London this takes no account of the 50% increase in flights from London City Airport, approved by the very ignorant and totalitarian run London Borough of Newham.

You'll be heart warmed to know that this government made NO attempt to highlight this change to the very people who would be most affected - they made no attempt to directly consult with residents beyond West London. It's identical to the LCA consultation fiasco - if you could even call it a 'consultation'. Thankfully John Stewart of HACAN Clearskies has been the key individual to highlight the effect of changes at Heathrow on south and east London - if it was not for his continued significant and committed involvement the communities soon to be affected would still have been kept in the dark by this morally lacking government. You can check the barmy paperwork from the Department for Transport on 'Adding Capacity' at Heathrow HERE.

The Times article (which we recommend you read) stated: Aircraft will take different routes from the holding stacks to the new turning points, meaning there will be winners and losers in terms of noise.

Residents in many parts of inner London will no longer have aircraft passing within earshot, but millions of people in outer London and the Home Counties will either be exposed to aircraft noise for the first time or find many more aircraft flying directly overhead. The main losers will be those living close to the new turning points, which will be over Reading to the west and Dartford and Woolwich to the east.

Noise levels will also increase in Watford, Amersham, Camberley, High Wycombe, Barking, Rainham, Ilford, Leytonstone, Walthamstow, Barnet, Carshalton and Beckenham. People in Hampstead, Highgate, Islington, Hackney, Mile End, Stratford, Harrow, Ruislip and Henley will no longer hear any Heathrow-bound air traffic.

The Government did not make clear in its consultation document on Heathrow expansion, published in November 2007, that so many people would experience a significant change in aircraft noise.

Looks like Boris Johnson, Mayor of London (Objector of the Heathrow 3rd runway, but supporter of London City Airport expansion) is going to be a winner - with Heathrow aircraft being removed from the skies of his residential area - lucky him!

Contested Evidence

The Governments own independent watchdog: The Sustainable Development Commission has called for an independent review of aviation policy. In a paper released in September 2008 the watchdog has examined the disputes and gaps in information which are leading to conflict:It sets out some of the opposing views of a wide range of stakeholders concerned about aviation, and makes the case for an independent review of policy and a true national debate before major decisions can be made on the future of air travel in the UK.http://www.sd-commission.org.uk/pages/aviation.html

So another government body is raising flaws in aviation policy which of course the aviation industry are happy to exploit. It seems the pressure is on and growing. Just how much more will it take to tip the Government off that they are backing a dead donkey in terms of public opinion?

It's Simply a Rule of Thumb and, Do 406 Employees Make LCA a Major Employer in Newham?

Yet more evidence on just how much deception and collusion is going on between the aviation industry and government.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article4364216.ece

It is no surprise for those residents in East and South East London who are affected by London City Airport operations and whom are concerned at the possiblity of further flight expansion. They've been finding out lots of dirty secrets over the past 9 months.

Compare the Times article with:

1. London City Airport failed to take any accurate noise readings of it's departing aircraft for 7 years - despite the amount of planes being allowed to operate being based on a noise factored movement.

2.This means that London City Airport could have been allowing more noise factored movements than permitted in the Section 106 agreement.

3. Noise levels from individual craft at London City Airport could have exceeded beyond those set out in the Section 106 agreement to the detriment of the health and well being of local residents. This means that there are no accurate noise readings or noise contour maps for the whole of the areas around the airport. No evidence is available to ensure that the airport has/is not exceeding the agreed noise limits or that homes have received the noise mitigation that they are entitled to.

4. LB Newham have failed to take any action in 7 years which ensured that London City Airport carried out regular and reliable noise data collection.

5. London City Airport, in its current application, has based it's case for flight expansion on estimated, unreliable noise and environmental data - purely because their methods of monitoring on site have failed consistently due to a lack of their committment to the requirements of the last planning application. Spot any parallels with the Heathrow Consultation debacle?

6. It appears that The Department for Transport has happily accepted 'estimated' noise data from London City Airport for 6 years as part of the EU directive requirement for all airports to provide annual data on noise contours. Did they never question why it was estimated, and not real, and the reason behind this, not even once?

7. Stephen Timms, MP for Newham supports expansion on the basis of adequate environmental measures and noise mitigation being implemented. He has failed to ensure that the environmental and noise measurements have been carried out, in his borough, for 7 years, where has he been? He has clearly not raised this as a concern with the LB of Newham, nor with the airport and continues to neglect to mention this in his articles. What confidence can residents have in him in ensuring the airport will meet future obligations, if they have failed consistently in the past, with no challenge from the authorities?

8. Job Growth - lies, lies and more lies. We all know that the job figures from London City Airport are a closely guarded secret, particularly the amount of Newham residents who are employed. Why? Because the figures are not as LCA promote, sorry, spin, them to be, and they are not flattering to them at all. It's something about 'burying bad news'.

Insiders inform us that they are not at all happy with what they feel is the ''purposeful deception of the community into the belief that there has been or will be so many extra jobs at London City Airport'' . The LB Newham is supposed to collect annual job data from LCA - it appears that this had not occured if we are to take the word of LCA's Richard Gooding in a letter to Stephen Timms MP.

In addition Stephen Timms claims that the airport has "created 2000 jobs". What he doesn't tell you is how he calculated this figure - we believe he has added on the jobs in the local hotels and other neighbouring businesses (courtesy of the information being passed over from the LCA spin machine no doubt), even cab drivers- but how could he possibly isolate all these jobs outside of the airport as a direct result of the airport activities - and not the Excel Centre, or tourists looking for the best value hotel room in London?

LCA customer profiles indicate that the majority of their users earn on average over £86,000 per annum. It seems more likely that they perhaps would consider the Four Seasons Hotel in Docklands, or one of an equal standard in zone 1, over the lower star chains stituated by the airport, which suffer from up to 87db noise levels in the areas around them.

In fact the airport directly employs just 406 employees - as stated in a letter to Stephen Timms MP. The airport could not indicate how many of those 406 staff were part time.

Apparently, according to Stephen, the employment of 406 staff, none of whom could be identified as Newham residents by LCA at the time that the letter was written, nor of how many are part time makes LCA a 'major employer' in Newham. How's that? We think he is getting confused with THE major employer - Newham Council or perhaps Tate and Lyle?

The airport therefore does not employ 2000 people directly - and the use of the sentence 'created 2000 jobs' by Stephen Timms does nothing more than purposely continue to mislead the communities into reading that 2000 LCA jobs have been created - which they have not. Still, perhaps he is just following the precedent set by the Heathrow example.

It all smacks of collusion, maladministration and a purposeful deception of the communities for the purpose of big business getting its way, at any cost.

Residents have been let down and misled - it's time to make all these individuals accountable. Expansion cannot be based on estimates of noise and pollution, and the shocking lack of committment of the airport and the local council to ensure that conditions are met can only lead the majority to have a vote of 'no confidence' in them.

When most people do a bad job, fail to meet targets, requirements etc they usually get penalised for that - that's of course only if they haven't made lots of money for big business by failing to adminster the requirements. The making of money, and of looking after one's own career, of course supercedes all the other failures.

Friends In High Places - Panorama

The fat cats are schmoozing. If you ever wondered just how cosy things can get between the airline industry and government, including local government, then Panorama's next programme on Monday 21st July, 8.30pm might just interest you.

Remember us reporting that a senior Newham Official had alledgedly stated "can't say no to big business" when talking about LCAs expansion to local residents at a question and answer session in Newham? What exactly could the individual had meant by such a statement? Clearly he wouldn't have a problem with saying to residents that their lives will be made a living hell by noise, they'll be out of pocket and their lives will probably be shorter as a result of the kind of expansion planned over in south and east London. Well it seems that autocratic attitude could be endemic......surprise, surprise!!!

In the report Panorama found that it was all rather cosy between Downing Street and the aviation industry, and that many of those that had worked for government now hold major positions in the aviation industry. We know of one who is linked to aviation land East London who fits this stereotype nicely, contact book to the ready then!

Spare a thought for residents in West London, and we hope you will show your support for them too.

BBC Panorama investigates allegations that the government has been in cahoots with BAA over the expansion of Heathrow Airport.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/panorama/7514501.stm

How can the government lecture the country on going green while backing a third runway at Heathrow Airport which will dramatically increase air travel and raze a village to the ground?

Not without cynically twisting the science around air pollution and noise, according to critics.
The environment is one of Labour's big issues, with Prime Minister Gordon Brown himself saying that protecting it is "one of the greatest challenges of our time".

Government Wobbles at Campaign Against Aviation Expansion

Greenpeace show they have their finger well and truly on the pulse in this article. http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/blog/climate/government-wobbles-over-heathrow-20080228

The Government are under so much pressure, that the prospect of an aviation bubble bursting is nearing the horizon.....any such wobbles at Heathrow will emanate out to all airport expansion plans - including those at London City Airport, hurrah!

Extract from article:

If you're one of the many, many thousands of people involved in the opposition to Heathrow expansion, you may want to give yourself a pat on the back. The day after the 'consultation' closed, there's news that we're getting the message through to 'the highest levels of Labour'.

One MP told the evening Standard there had been a "wobble" within the Department of Transport about BAA's proposals. "They are realising this could cost them votes," he said.
In an attempt to limit the damage, the DfT refused to publish any of the submissions to the consultation, which ended yesterday. Critics claim this is because they are embarrassed that the majority of the responses are opposed to expansion.

Fight the Flights - Digs It's Heels In to Fight for the Communities

As many of you will have noticed in press reports: Fight the Flights has been taking legal advice since October 2007 on the current application by London City Airport to expand flights, being considered by Newham Council. We continue to take that legal advice.

We have all been carrying out a lot of work behind the scenes over the past few months as individuals (including prior to the coalition forming), but we can confirm that Fight the Flights has contacted a huge amount of decision makers regarding the application and the Newham consultation farce. We have also more recently: requested a meeting with the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, and have contacted all MEPs, most GLA members and most neighbouring boroughs.

There has also been a door to door petition in the Royal Docks - which collected 500 signatures in objection and the ongoing online petition. Various leaflet drops have been delivered to households in the Royal Docks, North Woolwich, Silvertown, Custom House and Thamesmead areas, and even a newsletter.

It is important that we also mention that there are other objection groups across the boroughs affected whom are carrying out their own successful campaigns independently.


We continue to work closely with Friends of the Earth, Airport Watch and various other groups and indeed some of those groups are campaigning in their areas, in their own right, against London City Airport Expansion.

If you are regular readers of the blog you will also have noticed that John Austin MP for Erith and Thamesmead has called for a public inquiry, and Bexley Labour Group is also backing him on that. But in addition there are many other prominent objectors: Mayor Ken Livingstone, Darren Johnson, GLA Member, Sian Berry, Mayoral Candidate for the Green Party, Charles Secrett, GLA member, to name just a few. You might just spot a few more well known names on our online petition list or in articles on this blog site. The tide is rising and growing in objection to London City Airport's ridiculous expansion plans.

The team here, at Fight the Flights, are in this for the long term as we believe, and have research to support, that any expansion will harm us all and our communities. We believe that profit should NOT be put before the health and well-being of the communities. As the Mayor, Ken Livingstone said - residents must come first.