Heathrow noise complaints soar in flight test

Heathrow has seen a five-fold increase in complaints about noise over the past year, official figures reveal today.

Campaigners against a third runway say the rise has been caused by new flight paths being tested for use if the airport is expanded.

Some 94,114 individual noise complaints were received last year compared with 18,826 in 2013, according to figures obtained by Tory MP Zac Goldsmith who called the rise “staggering”.Of these, 86,000 complaints were made during a five-month period when the flight paths were being tested.

Mr Goldsmith, the MP for Richmond Park, said: “The recent flight path trials offer a tiny hint of what’s to come if Heathrow is expanded. The trials affected a small part of west London, whereas a third runway would bring hundreds of thousands of new people into the airport’s noise footprint. At this stage they know nothing about it.”

The official commission chaired by Sir Howard Davies to recommend a location for at least one extra runway in the South-East is in its final months. Heathrow and Gatwick have both been shortlisted for a final decision soon after the general election.

Transport Department sources are not convinced that the rise in complaints means more people would be affected. One said: “When people know that a runway decision is imminent, they tend to complain more frequently in order to reduce the chances of it being sited in their area.”

Mr Goldsmith, who chairs an all-party group on Heathrow, called for details to be published of probable flight paths if expansion goes ahead.

Other figures provided by Heathrow showed nearly 7,000 people complained about night and early morning flights last year, said the MP.

Heathrow said: “Last year 8,458 local people contacted us to register a complaint about aircraft noise but at the same time 65,000 local people signed up to the Back Heathrow campaign for Heathrow’s expansion. Reducing noise is a key priority for Heathrow but as recent polling shows, more local people back a third runway because of the jobs and careers it would bring, than oppose it because of noise.”

Supporters of Heathrow said the trials were not of different flight paths but to test new operations, like mixed-mode, which had nothing to do with expansion.