Draft Aviation Policy - have your say

This just in from our friends at Belfast...

I am contacting you on behalf of Belfast City Airport Watch, an umbrella organisation which represents 20 residents’ associations and community groups, and which also has more than 550 individual associate members.

I am contacting you because your organisation campaigns re the issue of aircraft noise related to what the government terms a ‘non-designated’ airport with regard to aircraft noise. (The designated airports – as you are probably aware - are Heathrow, Stansted and Gatwick).

We are very concerned at the lack of any adequate new noise protection measures for residents near non-designated airports contained in the DfT’s Draft Aviation Policy Framework document. While no specific timeframe is specified in the document, it appears that the government envisages that this document, once finalised, will represent its national policy on aviation strategy – including aircraft noise – until at least 2020.

I have attached, fyi, a copy of our submissions to the current DfT consultation on the Draft Framework and to the House of Commons Transport Select Committee’s current consultation on aviation strategy. Both of these contain Executive Summaries with bullet points for ease of reference – so you’ll be able to see our chief concerns and proposals at a glance. We hope you’ll take a few minutes to read them.

We would urge you to do the following, if you share any or all of our concerns:

• Make your own submission to the DfT’s consultation on the Draft Framework, for which the deadline is 31st October. See: https://consultation.dft.gov.uk/dft/aviation-policy-framework
• Make a submission to the Transport Select Committee’s own inquiry into aviation strategy, for which the deadline is 19th October. One of the questions on which the Committee is seeking views is on whether or not the noise measures contained in the Draft Aviation Policy Framework are adequate. See: :
• Urge your members to do likewise – so officials and politicians become aware of the extent to which this issue matters to ordinary voters

We are very concerned that much of the Framework document is focused around issues concerning the three designated airports – and that the needs of residents near non-designated airport, which collectively impact on hundreds of thousands of people, are being ignored. We suspect this is partly because the voice of those residents hasn’t been heard loudly enough in the consultation process to date.

Many thanks in anticipation of your help and support on this important issue.

Kind regards,

Liz Fawcett, Chair, Steering Group, Belfast City Airport Watch