The Council's policy on aircraft noise issues
It is Council policy to support measures which will minimise the impacts of Heathrow, especially the ending of night flights. Greater detail is given below, which has been copied from the Council’s current Local Development Framework Core Strategy.
The adoption of the Core Strategy puts in place a major component of the Borough’s Local Development Framework. It sets out the key planning policies which will, within the broader context of the London Plan, determine the future development of Richmond upon Thames over the next 15 years. Representations from a series of wide ranging consultations have been taken into account and the independent Inspector has confirmed the resultant document as sound.
The text quoted here focuses solely on the impacts of Heathrow. Of most relevance to Heathrow are the Spatial Policies on Sustainable Travel.
CP5 8.1.5 CP5 Sustainable Travel
5.H The Council will support measures to minimise the impacts of Heathrow, particularly on traffic and noise on the Borough and will oppose changes that increase local impacts. Specifically it will seek the support of BAA, the Government and relevant statutory authorities for the following measures:
a) maintenance of the 480,000 limit on total air transport movements;
b) maintenance of the current system of segregated mode;
c) maintenance of the current noise preferential routes;
d) the discontinuation of night flights;
e) restrictions of the use of private cars and improvements to public transport including a southern rail link.
8.1.5.1 Justification
8.1.5.8 Most of the Borough suffers from noise from aircraft landing and taking off from Heathrow and night flights are a particular concern. The Government has consulted on options for further capacity at Heathrow and in January 2009, confirmed policy support for adding a third runway at Heathrow with additional passenger terminal facilities and a slightly longer runway (2,200m operational length), but subject to an aggregate limit of 605,000 annual movements, which would be subject to review in 2020. The Council is in principle opposed to the expansion of the Airport for reasons of direct impacts of residents of noise, pollution, road traffic and potential risk to public safety as well the general exacerbation of development pressure in West London. The Council will press for the conditions relating to the 5th terminal to be imposed – in particularly the maximum number of flights (maximum 480,000 per annum) and segregated mode of operation with runaway alternation (where one runway is used for takeoffs and the other for landings and runways are swapped during the day). The Borough is an Air Quality Management Area because of traffic, including that to and from Heathrow, along the strategic roads.It will continue to press for improved public transport and restrictions on car use. Although outside the administrative boundaries of the Borough, the Council will oppose further development likely to lead to an increase in flights or services including additional terminals or a third runway.
8.1.5.9 Implementation
8.1.5.14 The Council through its membership of the Heathrow Airport Consultative Committee (HACC) and the Strategic Aviation Special Interest Group will continue to lobby the Government and BAA to achieve the measures described above.
Additional statements on Council Policy are found in The Community Plan 2007-2017
Section 2.2, page 13 says:
The expansion of Heathrow Airport (Terminal 5, ending of runway alternation and a possible 3rd runway/6th terminal) will lead to increased traffic, air and noise pollution. The Council will work with other organisations to influence national aviation policy to resist these proposals and minimise the adverse impact of Heathrow on the borough.
Our aims are:
To ensure that the adverse impacts of Heathrow Airport on the borough are minimised and that the global impact of aviation is taken into account in the development of national policy