CPRE, the countryside charity is strongly opposing new plans to stack aircraft arriving at Luton Airport over tranquil countryside in Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire.
Plans published by London Luton Airport and National Air Traffic Services (NATS) could see planes circling in a holding stack at a minimum of 8000 feet every four minutes from seven in the morning until eleven at night.
CPRE say the Covid pandemic has led to massive reductions in air traffic. Campaigners also point out that since wider airspace changes over southern England have been put on hold, it seems illogical to be pursuing these plans now.
“Even stranger is the fact that new technology is available that the government and even Luton airport say makes holding stacks obsolete,” said Alan James, Chairman of CPRE Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. “This immediate threat to the tranquility of Cambridgeshire’s countryside and villages would be irreversible if approved, so it is important for people to understand and act now.
“Forcing approval for the new air stack at a time when people are distracted by a national crisis is quite simply unethical,” he continued.
CPRE also say the plans do not give sufficient information or noise maps so it is difficult to be sure just how loud and the aircraft noise would be or how great would be the volume of air traffic.
Michael Monk, CPRE’s East of England Regional Chairman said: “We find it hard to reconcile these aircraft stacking proposals with the Government’s commitment to tackling climate change. These proposals, along with other airport expansion schemes in the south of England, appear at odds with the Government’s avowed intention of levelling up the more disadvantaged regions of England through the regeneration of their economies.”
Susan Lynch from CPRE Bedfordshire added: “The noise will be generated by aircraft being held in a ‘holding stack’ which CPRE, Government and even Luton Airport and NATS see as outdated and unnecessarily harmful to the environment with aircraft then being funnelled over tranquil areas of Bedfordshire”.
CPRE is asking people to make their concerns known by this Friday, February 5, through the consultation website:
See also: https://www.cprebeds.org.uk/news/changes-to-the-flight-path-at-luton-airport-have-you-had-your-say/
