As light relief from the intensive research and submissions that this group is undertaking with the Development Consent Order (DCO) Planning Process, one of our group thought they would listen in to a Full Council Meeting. As part of the agenda, there was a motion from the Liberal Democrats, regarding taking action against aircraft noise disturbance in the worst affected Wards of Luton.
The Motion was:-
2. To consider the following motion of which notice has been given in accordance with Standing Order 14.1 signed by Councillor Stephens:
This Council: Recognises the vital role that London Luton Airport plays in the provision of income, charitable and community funding and jobs for the residents of Luton.
Understands that appropriate and proportionate expansion of the airport will help to increase, both income and the availability of jobs for the Town’s population.
Equally recognises that more stringent measures are urgently needed to reduce the impact of noise pollution and worsening air quality that the airport, surface access traffic, and associated airline companies cause to Luton residents in general, and in particular, to those living in South, Wigmore, Stopsley, Vauxhall, Round Green and Central Wards.
Therefore requests, the Chief Executive, together with other relevant Council Officers, to initiate discussions with London Luton Airport Ltd (Luton Rising), London Luton Airport Operations Ltd and the Civil Aviation Authority to seek solutions to reduce the effects of detrimental pollutants and noise blight for the residents.
Consideration in these discussions should be given to the possibility of: –
- Moving the western flight paths further to the South
- Setting a firm deadline for airlines to replace older, noisier aircraft with more modern less noisy planes
- Placing more permanent noise monitors nearer to the populated areas of Luton, being mindful that readings from monitors currently located in residents’ gardens cannot be used to take legal action against airlines found to be in breach of statutory and locally imposed noise and pollution targets.
The livestream recording can be found here, between times 1.46.43 and 2.01.19:-
Listening to the full exchange gives more flesh to the motion, and we recommend having a watch and listen.
The Motion is a prime example of local Councillors actually listening to the wants and needs of their residents. But whilst their request are genuine, they will be hard to achieve.
When an aircraft departs the initial climb has to be done at the optimum engine power settings, to ensure safety in flight. Putting into that phase an earlier turn to move aircraft further south than the current track, could very well add extra pilot stress in that crucial time. It could also require revisions of Standard Instrument Departure tracks, which – as they have to fit into the whole Air Traffic System for the South of England – will be hard to deliver.
The request for the airlines to replace noisier aircraft, with newer technology is normally achieved by an airport paying an airline for that privilege. The question would then be, who pays for it? It is doubtful the airport operator would cut its profits for such an initiative, so that would require Luton Rising to oblige. This would then mean them keeping more money back from the dividend they could pay to LBC funds for residents, so it’s a balancing act as to what delivers more.
It is no secret that the Liberal Democrats support airport expansion, to best utilise the financial returns of the town’s only asset. However, they believe that it should not grow outside the current footprint, and when that site is at its full operational potential then enough is enough. They also believe that any developments should be funded by the airport operator, under the initial provision when the first Concession Agreement was laid down in the 1990’s. As we have detailed in other articles, the model used by LBC to fund LR’s building of the DART, and the DCO application, has been questioned by the Liberal Democrats, as it goes against that original concession tenet. As this motion states, they also believe that the current operations at the airport should be more receptive and responsive, to the current issues both Luton and surrounding residents have with both noise and air pollution.
Let us now look at the response to this motion from the controlling group of LBC, the Labour group.
You see in the stream the response from the Chair of the Climate Change Advisory Board of LBC. Whilst agreeing to support the motion, he then rather mockingly states that all the points raised have been covered in the Airport Operator’s Environmental Impact Plan, and chides the opposition members for not reading it. He then informs the chamber about the increase in air pollution monitoring in East/South Luton.
The first point we would like to bring to your attention, is that when that Board was set up, it declared that airport operations, both aircraft and surface traffic, would not be included in the Town Wide Plan. The reasoning behind this was not clear, but could be along the lines we have found in the DCO application, that if you can’t prove that pollution comes from airport operations, then you can’t accuse the airport of being responsible.
In other words, how long is a piece of string?
Next we come to the comment of air pollution monitoring in East Luton, the only monitor provided to specifically monitor airport pollution, is the one paid for by LR which sits in the hedge line near the skate park in Wigmore Valley Park. There isn’t a selection throughout the town, just that single site.
This Councillor accuses the opposition of not reading the plan mentioned, but he obviously hasn’t read their Motion considerations either.
The Motion refers to aircraft noise monitoring, not air quality, and there are no fixed noise monitors anywhere in Luton.
The airport operator shows the noise contours for the airport on their website:- https://www.london-luton.co.uk/corporate/community/noise/noise-monitoring
As you can see, apart from the poor souls in Luton South and Central, those of us in the rest of the town don’t actually hear any aircraft noise according to their monitoring data.
Sadly as you will see from the face of the Chairperson when the Councillor stops speaking, the controlling group seem to take any motion against their Airport Master Plan, as a joke to be laughed at.
The Leader of the Labour group then stated that these changes would be hard to implementation, as reviews had recently been done. She also mentions that supposedly the airport is the best performing airport in Europe for operations by New Engine Option aircraft (NEO) aircraft, 37% of total operations, and should therefore surely they should be congratulated on that fact.
Percentages are always a tricky beast, as it depends on the size of the sample you are working with. A 37% figure of the flights at Luton Airport, could well be bigger than, for example Amsterdam, but as Amsterdam is extensively busier than Luton, there could be more flights by NEO’s there, but just part of a bigger movement total? There is also some debate as to whether the new Airbus A321Neo is actually as quiet as the makers claim.
Our sister anti expansion group LADACAN has a very good article on this issue:-
Aircraft noise is a subjective issue, based on an individual’s own tolerances, and how long they have been exposed to that noise.
The noise monitoring set up at Luton uses the same sites as it did since monitoring began in the 1970’s. Surely that system is well overdue for an overhaul?