MAKING noises
Local campaigner Mike Urwin’s views on Heathrow are worth a listen
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f Heathrow has its way, be prepared for low flying aircraft! Proposed changes to air traffic management (ATM) and a changed protocol to spread aircraft over more London boroughs could see Merton and neighbours suffering added inbound westerly air traffic for the very first time. Wimbledon could see aircraft as low as 2000 feet, and, ‘worst case’, inbound aircraft overhead at the rate of one every 32
minute and a half. Residents in Wimbledon, Richmond, Cobham, Esher, Weybridge, Kingston and other towns should access “Heathrow’s Airspace Design Envelopes for Expansion, January 2019” website for possible new traffic movements over their homes. Heathrow’s proposed third runway will add 255,000 flights per annum, or 700 per day! Changes to ATM will add 25,000 more.
winter 19/20 | darlingmagazine.co.uk
Together they would increase current traffic by 60% to around 765,000 flights per annum. No surprise, then, that these two separate but related proposals will generate more noise, more pollution and add more carbon to both the planet and our neighbourhoods. Although technology will produce quieter, cleaner aircraft in the future, it is thought that viable electric aircraft are at least fifty years away.