Group calls for ban on night flights at West Sussex airport after government launches consultation
Campaigners have branded the consultation a 'missed opportunity'
Campaigners have branded a government consultation a 'missed opportunity', but it is not stopping a group from calling for a ban on night flights at a West Sussex airport.
The Department for Transport's consultation, which launched on Wednesday (2 December), proposes maintaining the existing night flight restrictions for Gatwick Airport, as well as Heathrow and Stansted, from 2022 to 2024, and banning QC4 rated aircraft movements between 11.30pm to 6am.
It is also seeking views on future night flight policy beyond 2024.
But, aviation community and environment group, Communities Against Gatwick Noise and Emissions (CAGNE) has said they are "very disappointed that the Government is just tinkering at the edges".
A statement from the group continued:
"Post-Covid and leaving the EU is the perfect opportunity to put health concerns, backed up by medical research, before commercial gains of airports and airlines.
"This was the chance to take a good, hard look at the facts relating to the impact night flights have on communities, nature and the environment.
"CAGNE conducted two surveys during September and October and communities were unanimous in seeking a ban on night flights.
"This has been a missed opportunity but that will not stop us campaigning for a ban on night flights at Gatwick that has some of the highest figures with 11,200 flown during the summer and 3,250 during the winter."
Campaigners up and down the country have branded the consultation a 'missed opportunity'.
But, they are banding together to call for a fundamental review of night flights.
Last month, representatives of nearly twenty community and environmental organisations wrote to the Aviation Minister, Robert Courts, asking for a ban on night flights.
People have until 11.59pm on 3 March, 2021, to have their say on the proposals online, or read more about the consultation in full here.