Hi,
I have noticed your petition notices in the building I live in and although I wish you luck in the cause that you believe in, I’m not sure I entirely agree.
I myself am a resident in a new apartment block overlooking Royal Victoria Dock (and directly underneath the flight path!) - and although I can hear the planes I don’t find it disturbing atall - in fact quite the opposite.
Although I have no personal interest in London City Airport itself, I wholeheartadly support their desire to grow - surely it benefits our whole community? I don’t understand why people are so afraid of development and change. Progression is what life’s about - just think what Canary Wharf would have been like if the 1980’s class war protestors had their way!
Anyway - I just wanted to voice my opinion as I feel a well-rounded argument from all sides would be beneficial to the long term debate over London City Airport and I hope you feel able to include it in your comments page.
Kind regards,
Julian Bovis
Comment by Julian Bovis — August 11, 2007 @ 8:53 am
Hi Julian,
Thank you for your comments.
Our main concern is that the expansion plans will mean that every 90 seconds you will have a plane either taking off or landing over our heads. This is not only the noise but also the air we are about to breath. It is not much of a problem now , but it will be in 2010, if we allow it to happen.
We do not oppose to growth , quite the opposite , all for it, but not at the expense of environmental disasters and pollution. The opposition to airport expansions is a bigger problem , people around the country are gathering together to try and stop it across all airports.
You mentioned the Canary Wharf development, this is an entirely different story, buildings do not make noises. Also the Canary Wharf proximity is good for our property value, not too sure that the same applies to a noisy airport.
Best regards and hope you join the petition after all.
Comment by admin — August 11, 2007 @ 9:14 am
Dear Assaf,
Many thanks for your reply. I thoroughly agree with your comments over the potential harm to the environment that airport expansions across the country may have - and on this point alone I fully support your protest.
However, I felt uncomfortable with the ‘Nimbyist’ undertones of the “StopCityAirport” campaign. The first two points on the posters were not environmental concerns atall - but purely about potential property prices and the privilege of sitting on one’s terraces in silence. I felt that subscribing to such a campaign could be letting a personal inconvenience masquerade itself as a genuine social concern.
If you were to angle your grievances towards the bigger picture then I’m sure you’d gain a wider and more credible support network.
Good luck!
Julian Bovis
Comment by Julian Bovis — August 11, 2007 @ 10:47 am
I live in Exeter. London City Airports lent their name to Balfour Beatty to buy Exeter City Airport at the beginning of this year. I live under the flightpath. I am very concerned about the environment. I am not a NIMBY so the campaign here didn’t involve trying to change the flightpath. We are very much afraid of there being more nightflights.
People don’t change their behaviour overnight but we cannot allow all this airport expansion at the same time as trying to tackle climate change. It just doesn’t make any sense. But besides the bigger picture of climate change there is the very real problem of noise and health. Children under busy fightpaths do less well at school; there is an increase of stress and heart disease where people live with noisy planes. My own health is affected and worsened by the noise I now have to put up with but I am already disabled and live in an adapted bungalow so why should I move just so that people can fly from Exeter to Norwich instead of getting a train? There should be a ban on internal flights immediately. People used to be able to get around this country by train so flights are unnecessary. At the end of the 2nd world war my mother took my baby brother from Exeter to Berwick-on-Tweed to see my father who was stationed there. If people could do then, they can do it now. One person’s cheap flight is another person’s misery.
Comment by Pat Mathewson — August 14, 2007 @ 3:50 am
I live just across the river from the end of the LCA runway. When I moved here 3 years ago, the planes did not worry me at all - otherwise I wouldn’t have moved here.
However in the past year LCA have allowed jet planes to overtake the propellor planes and as a result this has had a severe affect on the noise levels. In addition LCA and Newham managed to put through a planning application back in January, which we have only just found out about which allowed them to change the flight patterns during the week - now on the busiest days we can have jets thundering over us every 90minutes for up to four hours at a time so in the past year the planes have begun to annoy us considerably.
We can’t have our windows open at these busy times, nor can we sit on our balcony, and even with the windows closed the noise still requires conversation volumes to go up. And this is representative for the whole of our area.
Comment by A-M Griffin — December 9, 2007 @ 8:27 am
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Good luck with your campaign against the expansion proposals for City Airport from all at Stop Stansted Expansion.
Comment by Carol Barbone — August 10, 2007 @ 9:44 am