Issue - meetings

Government consultation on night flights restrictions at Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted Airports beyond 2024, plus national night fights policy.

Meeting: 02/09/2021 - Cabinet (Item 42)

42 Government consultation on night flights restrictions at Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted Airports beyond 2024, plus national night fights policy. pdf icon PDF 134 KB

To consider the report on the Government consultation on night flight restrictions.

Additional documents:

Decision:

RESOLVED:

 

i. To ratify the response to the Government, and;

ii. That the Director of Public Services, in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Planning and the Local Plan be authorised to sign-off the Council’s final response for submission by Friday 1st October.

 

Minutes:

Councillor Evans presented the report regarding the Government consultation on night flight restrictions. He thanked the Senior Planning Policy Officer for his expertise on the subject and the report. He said the report had been considered by Stansted Airport Advisory Panel (STAAP) and was debated extensively; these comments had been incorporated into the agenda papers. The Government had outlined the value of night flights but STAAP had wanted data on the value to the local economy. The Panel had also wanted to learn more on the necessity of passenger night flights. He concluded by saying that the response would be worked upon further by himself and officers, subject to any additional views and the approval of Cabinet, and proposed the recommendation.

 

Councillor Reeve said two further discussions of STAAP had taken place, due to the weight and complexity of the subject. He seconded the proposal of Councillor Evans to allow further comments on the draft response to be made. 

 

Councillor Pepper reiterated a number of points in the report and said night flights should only be used when essential. A balanced assessment should be carried out to find the true economic value of night flights as weighed against environmental damage.

 

Councillor Foley, Chair of STAAP, was invited to speak by the Leader. He said he wanted to move towards a period of reducing night flights, and they should only be used as a last resort. He thanked members of the public, Martin Peachey and Michael Young, who had spoken to STAAP at the previous meetings.

 


Meeting: 18/08/2021 - Stansted Airport Advisory Panel (Item 3)

3 Government Consultation on Night Flights Restrictions at Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted Airports beyond 2024, plus National Night Flights policy. pdf icon PDF 422 KB

To consider Government consultation on night flight restrictions beyond 2024, plus national flights policy.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Senior Planning Policy Officer presented the report and highlighted the following:-

·         The report had been revised from 19th May 2021 and paragraphs 1 to 8 had been updated.

·         An extended deadline had been negotiated with the Department for Transport and therefore the Council’s submission was now due on 1st October 2021.  This gave extra time to take into account the SoNA Sleep Study published on 22nd July 2021.

·         The existing night flight policy had been rolled forward for 3 years to enable a fuller review.

·         The comments made by the Panel at the last meeting had been incorporated in paragraphs, 23, 50 and 59.

·         The SoNA Sleep Study had been added as a separate Appendix C.

 

The Senior Planning Policy Officer recommended that the Panel considered the response; provided changes and additions and then endorsed the report in principle to go forward to Cabinet by the 1st October 2021.

 

There was a long discussion with questions from Members to the Senior Planning Policy Officer and the following comments were made:-

·         There was more capacity during the day, post Covid which put pressure on the industry to move night flights to the day.

·         The Senior Planning Policy Officeragreed that the airline industry needed to provide more details on the economic benefits of flying and night flights in particular.  This would enable a proper assessment of what the benefits were and who was benefitting - the local and national economy or other countries’ economies.

·         He agreed to stress that it was those in the community living under the flight paths that were particular affected by night flights.

·         The response stressed that the carry over of movement limits from the winter to the summer should stop, as it was unfair for local residents to suffer.

·         The airline industry needed to come up with a robust business model so that dispensations were used correctly and only for real emergencies.

·         Further work from the SoNA study should include an analysis of the effects night flights had on different age groups. 

·         He agreed with Members that there was a need for further scrutiny on the detail in paragraph 22 regarding dispensations.

·         The Senior Planning Policy Officersaid that one of the responses did support the extension of the night flight quota period to the full 8 hours including a time when no flights would be allowed. 

·         Noise from night flights was an issue for a large proportion of the District.

·         The consultation contained too many ‘judgement’ decisions with no consistency, hard facts, or formulae for the rationale stated.

·         There were no plans to update the cargo planes which were generally the oldest, noisiest and most polluting.

·         There were many broad statements in the consultation that needed to be more defined, for example in paragraph 53, to specify what technology would reduce aircraft noise. The Panel felt strongly that the Government needed to be held to account.

·         In paragraph 36, the Government were looking at banning noisy aircraft and the Council  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3