By Tim Walker
At the recent Forest Hill Society AGM the Mayor, Damien
Egan, announced that the Council would henceforth engage much more proactively with
Airports on the issues of flight paths and low aircraft over Lewisham. This is
excellent news, and is something we have been campaigning towards for several
years.
Where individual aircraft are flying to over Forest Hill
isn’t always immediately apparent - London City and Heathrow Airports both
overfly us at different times and in different wind conditions. It has been
quiet during the pandemic but this summer noise returned and was all the more
noticeable. The worst is in light east wind conditions when arrivals from both airports
are overhead.
Two planes turn
west towards Heathrow over SE London (at 4000ft) while another crosses their
paths turning east towards London City (at 1700ft)
The Government seems intent on enabling airport and aviation
expansion, and is putting its ‘Jet Zero’ policy forward to justify how climate
change and aviation expansion can reasonably co-exist. A noise, emissions and
climate emergency debate rages - a recent comment on that, from climate action
charity Possible, said:-
‘Although the government’s recognition of the
need to tackle aviation emissions is welcome, its scenarios to achieve net zero
aviation by 2050 are fatally flawed. It relies on undeveloped, extremely
expensive or unworkable technologies....’
At the same
time Government has just abolished the Independent Commission on Civil Aviation
Noise, which met with the Forest Hill Society several times in their brief 3
year existence as we worked to get our local double overflight problems onto
the aviation policy agenda. And Heathrow night flights are to continue, exactly
as they are, for at least three more years, giving us those late night and very
early morning wakeups in SE London. John Doherty and I have been working with
all this for some time now while representing the Forest Hill Society; this seems
like a setback to us, and feels like very little progress at all.
But maybe these
national issues are not for our local Society anyway. What can we actually
influence? First, we’ve invested time meeting and putting our information and
arguments to GLA Assembly Members, our MP’s and Councillors. Recently we have been
delighted to see both Ellie Reeves MP and Janet Daby (MP Lewisham East who we
met in a June Zoom call) ask questions in Parliament about flight paths, citing
the low flying and unreasonable aviation noise experiences of Lewisham people.
For a few years
now, I have been attending the London City Airport Consultative Committee, to
keep Forest Hill and Lewisham on their agenda. I am pleased that Lewisham
Cabinet Member Sophie McGeevor has also attended and has made it her business
to strongly represent Lewisham’s interests there. Meanwhile I have also been
attending the Heathrow Community Noise Forum, always trying to make sure that
our very real issues with their flight paths over SE London are not drowned out
by equally compelling issues from those living nearer the airport.
The next big
issues that we can have any influence on in Lewisham are going to be the
redesign of both London City and Heathrow flight paths. We need to make sure
they coordinate their work, when there is little evidence of that in the past.
Otherwise, we may end up with something similar to today or worse. I was
invited to a workshop on flight path design principles at Heathrow in
September. City Airport is expected to announce their development plans in
December. We will be arguing for an end to double overflight from the two
airports, and an end to the single low level concentrated arrivals path from
London City, with introduction of alternative and rotating routes, so the same
people don’t get the noise all the time.
London City Airport – current low
altitude concentrated flight path over Lewisham
These are big
issues not just for Forest Hill but for large parts of Lewisham and SE London.
That is why we asked Lewisham to make preparations on behalf of all of us as
these important flight path details are hammered out and consulted upon. Following
recommendations from the Forest Hill Society the Mayor has confirmed that Lewisham
Council will take up a place at the London City Airport Consultative Committee
and the Heathrow Community Noise Forum. This will give officers regular up to
date information on what is happening. We understand that the Council also
plans to work closely with other SE London Councils, the No Third Runway
Coalition and the Aviation Environment Federation, both non political bodies
that will provide Councillors and Officers with high quality information to
inform the Borough’s policy and timely responses to consultations and help them
to influence flight path planning.
These are not
big or costly things to do in themselves, but will help Lewisham to step up. We
are delighted that Lewisham has responded by deciding to embed this work into
the environmental health team, so that they can be best prepared at all times
to contribute wisely on aviation issues where they affect Lewisham residents.
