HACON NOVEMBER NEWSLETTERHeathrow Expansion Consultation Expected in DecemberThe consultation on expansion at Heathrow is now expected in December. Local authorities are pencilling in the week beginning the 17th December after they had a meeting with the Aviation Minister Jim Fitzpatrick. The reason for the latest delay is that the Government acceded to demands to publish the ANASE Noise Study prior to the consultation (see below). The consultation is expected to run until the end of March, with the Government saying they will make up their minds on a third runway and their plans to end runway alternation by July.OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOStop Heathrow Expansion WebsiteHACAN has put together a wide-ranging coalition of organisations and individuals opposed to expansion at Heathrow. It was launched earlier this week. It has its own website – www.stopheathrowexpansion.com. That website will not replace existing websites of HACAN or other members of the coalition but it will be the website dedicated to the campaign against expansion. When the consultation comes out there will be a facility on the website where people can email their response directly to the Department for Transport. The website also hosts the campaign’s joint petition against expansion. During the consultation period HACAN will be mounting, with its coalition partners, a series of exhibitions, street-stalls and public meetings. We will be also doing targeted leaflet drops and possibly newspaper advertisements. We have also commissioned a major study which challenge the economic claims being made for Heathrow expansion. We expect it will be launched prior to the consultation being announced in December. To sign the petition against expansion click on www.stopheathrowexpansion.com OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOThe ANASE Noise StudyThe Government sat on the ANASE Noise Study for several months until it was forced to publish after pressure from MPs, local authorities and campaign groups. The reason it was so reluctant to publish the study was that it didn’t give the Department for Transport the answers it was looking for. The Government commissioned the ANASE Study in March 2001 just before the General Election of that year. It had been embarrassed into doing so because the previous study assessing people’s attitudes to aircraft noise had come out in 1985. As is clear from the report on the BBC website – below – the new study showed that 10 times as many people as the Government previously admitted are disturbed by aircraft noise – just as HACAN members have been telling them for years! Although the report was a national one, it will have the biggest implications for Heathrow. The Department for Transport had said that expansion had Heathrow would not be permitted if it increased the area affected by noise levels averaging out at more than 57 decibels (the 57 db Leaq contour). The new report shows that study shows that 57 figure to be meaningless as “the onset of community annoyance” starts around 50 decibels. Aviation Minister Jim Fitzpatrick went on the airwaves yesterday to say the study’s conclusions were inconclusive and therefore could not be taken on board in policy terms. It was merely a face-saving exercise. The conclusions are quite clear. They simply don’t suit the Government. The media were’nt buying the Government’s story either. I’m pleased to say HACAN got good coverage on the radio and TV and in the press, including the Financial Times and the Evening Standard. See the BBC on-line coverage below. Finally, if you want to email me, better to use my own email – jdm.stewart@virgin.net. It can cause complications if you reply to hacan-news@hacan.org.uk .With my thanks,John StewartOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Heathrow noise 'annoys 2m more' The Department for Transport commissioned the study in 2001 Aircraft noise from Heathrow annoys far more residents than previously thought, an independent study has found. The number of respondents at least "very annoyed" generally increases in areas above 43 decibels, the study for the Department of Transport found. With current noise restrictions at 57 decibels, noise disturbs two million more people than previously estimated. But aviation minister Jim Fitzpatrick said the figures were not "robust" enough to lead to a change in policy. The Attitudes to Noise from Aviation Sources in England (ANASE) study, commissioned six years ago by ministers, could undermine plans to build a third runway at Heathrow. It questioned 2,733 residents in the first major aircraft noise study since 1985. Annoyance 'consistently greater' It found that levels of annoyance at Heathrow noise were "consistently greater" than they were 27 years ago. The Anase study also found that people began to be significantly disturbed at lower levels of noise. An estimated 258,000 residents currently experience Heathrow noise levels of 57 decibels or above, the level at which the government begins to place restrictions upon noise. However, a further two million residents, including people living as far afield as Clapham, Richmond and Maidenhead, experience noise levels above 50 decibels. We have already said that any expansion of Heathrow must not increase the area where people experience the highest noise levels OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAviation minister Jim Fitzpatrick The Anase study also found that people were significantly more annoyed by aircraft noise before 0700 GMT or after 2300 GMT. Mr Fitzpatrick said the study "gives us a better understanding of the complex issues surrounding aircraft noise". "But as the peer reviewers make clear, it does not give us the robust figures on which it would be safe to change policy," he added. The government is due to begin its consultation on plans to build a third runway at Heathrow next year. "We have already said that any expansion of Heathrow must not increase the area where people experience the highest noise levels, and this will be fully considered in the forthcoming Heathrow consultation," Mr Fitzpatrick said. The study confirms exactly what residents living under Heathrow flight paths have been telling the government for a decade OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOJohn Stewart, Heathrow Association for Control of Aircraft Noise John Stewart, spokesman for campaign group the Heathrow Association for Control of Aircraft Noise, said the Anase study was "embarrassing" to the government. "It shows that they have been seriously underestimating the number of people affected by aircraft noise," Mr Stewart said. "The study confirms exactly what residents living under Heathrow flight paths have been telling the government for a decade." If the government accepted the findings of the study, it would "throw a huge spanner in the works" of plans for a third Heathrow runway, Mr Stewart said. "It would be a scandal if the Department for Transport does not act upon these findings."
Jim Lawes ● 6799d