8th February, 2010
Airport ‘noise action plans’ will fail to tackle impacts on local communities, an AEF study has found. European laws designed to help protect communities from noise impacts now demand large airports – as well as roads, railways and built-up areas – to draw up ‘action plans’ for tackling their noise pollution. But the plans written by airports mainly just restate what they already have to do to comply with, local planning requirements, or, at Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted, because of rules put in place by the Government.
AEF has reviewed all the airport draft noise action plans and concluded that not one meets all the requirements of the EC law. The Government now has to decide whether to accept the plans or to send them back.
The report is available here: New Style, Old Story: a review of UK airport noise action plans.
For more comment, see the related press release.