If you want to log your objections, email : 2022consultation@lutonrising.org.uk, with your name and address, making it clear that you strongly oppose the plan to expand the airport. Our lives would be blighted forever by noise, ill health, choked roads, etc etc...
We reject the proposed plans for expansion of Luton Airport. There are a number of key issues that jump out,
Please feel free cut and paste these into your emails!
Air Pollution (NO2 etc): Air pollution – NO2, Ozone, microparticles, kerosene particulates. The health impacts of increased levels of these pollutants is well documented in Prestigious journals such as the BMJ. High and increased concentration of these pollutants have a direct and provable negative impact on respiratory diseases, such as asthma, lung cancers, heart disease, stroke and cancers. The recording of air pollutants has been sparse and particularly those areas in the more immediate flight path such as Studham, Kensworth, Whipsnade and Caddington, to name a few. We do not believe that the planning has taken this issue into adequate consideration. We reject the planning due to the real impact that >60% increased pollution levels from aircraft and traffic will have on heart disease, lung disease, cancers, stroke, mental health and respiratory conditions of the local population..
Air Pollution (Greenhouse gases): We reject the planning application due to the negative impact that significantly increased levels of emissions will have on the climate emergency and levels of green house gases.
Noise Pollution: When planes fly over us the official recorded noise levels in 2019 ranged from 69dB-75.5dB, for each plane. Thus on over 140 days of the year (40%) we will be subjected to noise levels averaging 71.5dB every 2-3 minutes for 24 hours a day! These noise levels are classified as 'hazardous to human health' by The Institute of Occupational Health. This is an invasion of our privacy, home life and civil liberties. No amount of available noise insulation in our homes will stop this, and we also like to go outside, and there the noise will become intolerable. This will have a devastating impact on our hearing, mental health, cardiac health and sleep. It is worth mentioning that historically Luton Airport has constantly broken planning restrictions on noise pollution and were never reprimanded, there is nothing to suggest that this will change. We reject the planning application due to the massive negative impact of the continuous loud noise, we will be party to on all areas of human health and sleep in this area, added to the fact that there has been historic negligence in maintaining noise levels. This is a breach of our human rights, has been deemed hazardous to health and will be detrimental to family and village life.
Impact on Nature: The negative impact on the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and conservation area of these Chiltern villages will also be considerable. With disturbances to the delicate balance of nature in these areas. There is already an increase in NO2-loving lichen. We have birds of prey, many species of owls, rare butterflies, wild orchids, ponds, the source of the river Ver, and of course Whipsnade Zoo, all which will be stressed and interrupted by the noise, pollutants, and airflows. We reject the application due to the potential negative impact on nature and animal life.
Financial opacity: The name-change and the presentation of this planned expansion has been made with massive costs (>£16m) and fanfare. However, there are serious concerns about the reasons and viability of this expansion. Luton Borough Council have loaned over £600m to Luton Rising and its previous incarnation. We have no audited accounts from LBC since YE 2017/18 and so as tax payers we have no clear idea of what this money has been used for and what the returns are. We object the application as the financial security and returns on investment of LBC and Luton Rising to date are not visible due to it not having released fully audited accounts since 2017, and thus we cannot ascertain at this point whether it is value for money and whether the finances of LBC and LR will be viable.
No significant impact on local jobs: There are spurious arguments listed regarding bringing jobs to the area, and the country would be better served by moving air traffic away from the over congested skies around London and the South East. There is little real contribution the economy, much less the Luton economy with jobs from Luton residents to the airport only estimated to increase by 1,100 from 3100 to 4400, hardly a bonanza. Only 0.5% of the estimated future Luton population! Similarly, the proportion of the Bedfordshire population employed by the airport will go up by a tiny 0.6% of the population. We object as there are only estimated to be an increase of 0.6% of local population employed by the airport, this is not the amount implied. The documentation has used actual numbers to try to make it look better, but percentages of the overall population show the impact is limited.
There is not a full transport strategy, it is ‘emerging’, and so this means that we as a community cannot fully assess the future impact of airport expansion on transport, and as a result cannot give a full, accurate and proper response, so the application by Luton Rising is incomplete. There will very likely be an enormous increase in emissions, which also must be added into this proposal so local people can get a true idea of the impact, A lack of a full strategy suggests possibly that the impact is likely to be much larger than acceptable, or it would be at this stage more than just ‘emerging’. We reject to the application as there is no proper transport strategy to support the 32m passengers coming through the airport, and no concrete research on the possible impact to the surrounding population.
Compensation offered is not enough for damage to home life, health, pollution, greenhouse gases. The small compensation offered in relation to sound insulation, and loss in property valuations, doesn’t account for the assault on our homelife, the disruption to our everyday lives and health when subjected to a constant noise, every day for 24 hours for at least 140 days a year. Our villages are ancient, Kensworth was listed in the Doomsday Book. People move here for the long-term, it is not a transient place and there is good community spirit in all villages. Constant aeroplane noise will really impact our way of life, moving is less of an option than in many other places. We object to the planning application as financial compensation is insufficient to cover the damage to our home & village lives, peace, health and environment.
Over-reliance on one large employer has risks: Government has also told LBC to reduce its dependence on the airport, this has history, the overreliance on the car industry had a devastating impact on Luton and Dunstable in past. Let this not happen again.
These proposals go over many years, Luton Rising has not discussed its arrangement with the Airport consortium and what will happen when contracts are up for renewal in March 2031, and what the impact of this will be to the planned expansion.
We reject this proposal as the Planning was not adequately advertised and thus there was not adequate consultation to the population of three local villages Kensworth Studham and Whipsnade. All are in the direct and low flight path of Luton Airport. The meetings were held some distance away in areas of Bedfordshire that are not as badly affected by noise, air pollution, etc. Most meetings were held in Hertfordshire, with only 2 in Bedfordshire. No consultation took place in our villages, which will be directly and disproportionately affected by any expansion. In addition, the “Question Time’ offered was not a question time, and gave no opening for asking questions or pushing further on the prepared responses. People in attendance were not given permission to ask questions, and were given no space for debate or discussion amongst the community. It was as though we no longer lived in a democracy. If the BBC did this on their Question Time there would be uproar. We object to expansion as our villages of Kensworth, Studham & Whipsnade were not adequately consulted.
For the points listed above and many others, we strongly object to the further expansion of Luton Airport.