Night flights

Following a two stage consultation process the Government decision on Night Flying Restrictions at Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted Airports was published in June 2006.

October 2012

This is when the new night flight regime needs to start, to restrict the number of flights permitted to fly at night.

Summer 2011

A consultation for the 2012 regime is due to start sometime in 2011. It is Richmond Council Policy to seek an end to night flights.

May 2008 - Judicial Review on night flights

On 20 May Richmond and other 2M authorities took the Government to the High Court in the Strand in a Judicial Review over night flights. The Council’s position is that there should be no flights at night between the hours of 11pm to 7am, whereas the Government allows nearly 6000 flights a year between 11:30pm to 6am. The issues included the misclassification of some aircraft which then permits them to fly at night when we believe that they should be banned. We also challenged the Government’s claim that they are ‘bearing down’ on aircraft noise, yet we have seen no reduction in movements let alone any move towards a night time ban.

Unfortunately despite agreeing that the government’s policy was vacuous, the Court did not accept our arguments and so did not find in our favour.

The Council is well aware that the night flights issue remains as pressing as ever for our residents and it will continue to challenge the regime whenever possible.

October 2006

Six year night flight regime(pdf, 25KB) started in Cctober 2006 and ends October 2012. Consultation on the new regime is due in spring 2011.

Night Flight Consultation - Stage 2- 2005

In response to the Governments consultation to increase the number of night flights to Heathrow a 'Night Flights and Other Issues Survey' was available from August to September 2005 on the Council's website and in all public libraries. The results of the survey were taken into account when the Council compiled its response, to the Governments consultation. A copy of the response and a summary of the results are now available for viewing.

2004

Response of the London borough of Richmond to the Richmond Council Policy to seek an end to night flights.004 Department for Transport Night Flights Restrictions Consultation(pdf, 62KB)

July 2003

The Grand Chamber then overturned the European Court of human rights (ECHR) ruling, following the Government’s appeal, by agreeing that the authorities had acted within their ‘margin of appreciation’, striking a “fair balance between the right of the individuals affected by those regulations to respect for their private life and home and the conflicting interests of others and of the community as a whole”. The ‘margin of appreciation’ was that it allowed the Government to decide that  economic considerations had precedence to over basic health conditions.

October 2001

Good news that the European court of human rights (ECHR) had decided in favour of Hatton and other residents, that the UK government had infringed the basic human rights of residents living near London's Heathrow airport by failing to protect them adequately from night-time aircraft noise. Hatton had alleged that the Government’s policy on night flights at Heathrow Airport gave her persistent sleeping problems, and so constituted a violation of her private life (Art 8).