Since London Luton Airport announced plans to change their flight paths in 2020, Richard Fuller MP has been arguing against their plans and during a recent debate in the House of Commons, he was again able to question the minister about the Airport's ill-conceived changes. Following their implementation, the Civil Aviation Authority has been conducting a "Post Implementation Review" of the changes. This is standard practice following a change of this type and Richard was pleased to receive confirmation from the Minister that the Review closing date would be extended from May to September 2023 to enable more information to be gathered about the impact of the change, especially over the busier summer period. The Minister also agreed to meet Richard, and neighbouring MPs, to discuss concerns about the impact of noise on local residents.
Details of RIchard Fuller's questions are set out in the video above and the full debate, including the commitments given by the Minister at the conclusion of the debate is here: Luton Flightpaths - Hansard - UK Parliament
When the flight path changes were first announced in 2020, Richard campaigned against them and took extensive steps to seek to change the plans by writing to the Transport Minister, raising the issue in Parliament, tabling amendments to draft legislation, discussing the plans with Luton Airport and taking part in the public consultation by explaining to the Civil Aviation Authority why he thought that the plans were wrong.
Sadly, the decision was made by the CAA to approve the request from London Luton Airport to make these changes.
When the “consultation” was first launched, Richard commented at the time:
"I was dismayed at the way the “consultation” had been handled. The absence of appropriate involvement of local authorities or local councillors during the phase of determining options has led to a considerable restriction on local democratic accountability. As a result, local residents were forced to choose between unattractive alternatives and given no option to recommend other potential outcomes which would have a less intrusive impact on air pollution and noise pollution.
I wrote to the Secretary of State to raise my objections. In February 2021, I spoke in the House of Commons about my concerns regarding the consultation into the proposed airspace changes. At that time, the Government had introduced the Air Traffic Management and Unmanned Aircraft Bill which would deal with how national airspace changes were handled in the future and the regulatory regime for the provision of en-route air traffic control services. Although the Bill was not directly related to the proposed changes at London Luton Airport, the timing of the Bill was an opportunity for me to outline to the Minister the local concerns and to urge him to ensure that we have better designed consultations than the one from London Luton Airport."
Richard's speech during the above debate in February 2021 is available here - https://www.richardfuller.co.uk/news/richard-raises-luton-airport-airspace-consultation-parliament, as well as the Minister’s response to his speech which is contained in the link at the end of the article.
On a number of occasions, including again in November 2022, Richard has met with representatives of London Luton Airport, including the Chief Operating Officer and was able to leave them in no doubt about the strength of feeling about these proposals but they pressed ahead.
Despite London Luton Airport's decision to press ahead, Richard continued to oppose the measures. He had a meeting with the Minister Robert Courts to reiterate the local concerns, met with local residents and during a further debate, again stressed to the Minister the concerns about the local consultation and the expansion of London Luton Airport – Richard speaks in the debate on Luton Airport Expansion | Richard Fuller and then joined with another local MP in raising specific concerns about the airport’s plans for expansion and the impact on local residents - Richard writes to the Minister about Luton Airport Expansion | Richard Fuller
Following the closure of the consultation in February 2021, London Luton Airport having considered the information, indicated that it intended to move forward with seeking approval by the Civil Aviation Authority - Airspace change proposal public view (caa.co.uk)
Richard requested a further meeting with the CAA to discuss the position and set out to them that he continued to have concerns about the way in which this had been handled by London Luton Airport. Although the decision was taken to implement the flight paths, Richard was pleased that there would be a higher descent over parts of the constituency closest to the Cambridgeshire border near to St Neots (an increase of height for flying above the stack from 8,000 to 9,000 feet), but the impact of the changes have been significant for local residents and he has continued to campaign against them and urge a re-think.
In a separate move, the Secretary of State for Communities “called in” the plans for Luton Airport expansion as there are clearly concerns about them and further details are here: Richard welcomes government inquiry into Luton Airport's expansion plans | Richard Fuller
In addition in May 2022, Richard raised the issue with the minister in the House again and has continued to seek further opportunities to make changes to the way in which these decisions were made and the impact of their implementation on local residents. - (1) Luton Airport - YouTube. Towards the end of last year, Richard wrote to the Chief Executive Officer of London Luton Airport to raise further concerns and in November 2022, met with the Chief Executive Officer. Following the meeting, Richard said:
"I met with him to explain again the concerns of residents whose enjoyment of their homes and gardens was now being blighted by increased noise levels. He confirmed to me that as part of the Post Implementation Review, Luton Airport was recording complaints which it received from residents living under the new flight paths about the impact of noise. This demonstrates the importance of residents continuing to let London Luton Airport know when they are being disturbed by aircraft noise. I appreciate that residents would rather not be spending time logging their concerns but in my view, it is important that the Airport is fully aware of the concerns of local residents. I urge residents to continue to provide the Airport with details of noise disturbance, so that they are aware of the impact of these changes."
During the debate earlier this month, Richard once again reiterated the need for stronger measures to ensure better consultation in the future. The debate also demonstrated that there had to be a better understanding of the impact of these changes on rural areas and particularly when measuring noise, the level of aircraft noise recorded in a rural area will often have more impact than the same recording in an urban area. Following the debate, Richard commented:
"It was welcome that the Minister confirmed that the Post Implementation Review period would be extended to enable more data to be gathered up to the 22nd September 2023, rather than May as originally intended. I also welcome his agreement to meet with me and other local MPs to consider these concerns in more detail and I look forward to continuing to make the case to Government, London Luton Airport and the Civil Aviation Authority on behalf of residents affected by these revised flight paths and the process which led us there."
Further details about the Post Implementation Review are set out here: Airspace change proposal public view (caa.co.uk)
Details of how to complain about noise created by these changes are here: Reducing the impact of noise - London Luton Airport (london-luton.co.uk)
