Councils force night flights climbdown

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as Government backs down on plans to allow extra early morning arrivals at Heathrow before 6 am.......

The climbdown follows legal action last year by Wandsworth, Richmond and Windsor and Maidenhead councils.

Transport minister Derek Twigg said yesterday that he had decided not to increase night time movement limits at Heathrow during the period 2006 to 2012. The formal announcement will be made by the end of the month.

The councils' legal team had argued that the proposal to increase flight numbers contravened government policy to reduce noise and grossly under-regulated the areas around Heathrow that the Government itself has admitted are affected by noise from early morning arrivals.

The councils had also called for a ban on the Boeing 747-400s which Wandsworth experts had proved to have been given an incorrect noise rating. This meant they were placed in the permitted QC2 category instead of QC4. The Government already bans aircraft in this higher category from flying at night.

Wandsworth Council leader Edward Lister said:

"The minister presented this partial climbdown as a so-called concession during the debate on the Civil Aviation Bill. As many MPs pointed out, it was no concession at all. The Government
has been boxed into a corner by the legal pressure from Wandsworth and other councils. If it went ahead with an increase in night flights this year it would find itself back in the courts.

"In the short term the council's persistence appears to have resulted in a reprieve for local residents. But that will be small comfort if, after 2012, the numbers of night flights double as a result of the Government's proposal in the Civil Aviation Bill to remove the cap on movements before 6am.

"Despite the House of Lords voting to remove this clause in March the Government and its supporters have now voted down this amendment. As the Putney MP said during the debate this is nothing short of 'community vandalism.'

"We will now wait for the detail of the new night flight regulations before sitting down with our lawyers to see exactly what the Government is now proposing."

You can read the House of Commons debate on the Civil Aviation Bill at
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200506/cmhansrd/cm060508/debtext/60508-08.htm
www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200506/cmhansrd/cm060508/debtext/60508-8.htm

The Government defeated the Lords amendment to retain the night flights movement limit from 2012 by 286 votes to 204.

May 9, 2006