Government Deaf to Heathrow Noise Suffering

4.00.41pm UTC (GMT +0000) Fri 27th Apr 2007

Commenting ahead of tomorrow's (25th April) International Noise Awareness Day, London's Liberal Democrat MEP and anti-airport expansion campaigner Baroness Sarah Ludford said: "The relentless growth of flights at Heathrow is having a horrendous impact on the lives of those under the flight paths. Noise pollution resulting from aviation is not only a major source of irritation, but is also linked to stress, hypertension, sleep disturbance and impaired learning and academic performance."

"This Labour government's determination to push ahead with its misguided plans for a third runway at Heathrow is in blatant disregard for the suffering such unbridled expansion is causing Londoners."

Notes

It is estimated that the construction of a third runway at Heathrow would increase the number of flights at the airport to 720,000 a year, compared with 473,000 last year. According to HACAN ClearSkies, over 150,000 people will be directly under the new flight path, taking in Heston, Chiswick, North Hammersmith and Kensington and Chelsea to the east and Langley, Slough and Maidenhead to the west. Meanwhile, people under the existing runways will get all the big, noisy planes as the third runway has been designed to take the smaller aircraft.