The new Luton stack and arrival routes were approved by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) in February. It means that aircraft flightpaths to Luton and the holding stack location are changing. The changes now affect northern part of South Cambridgeshire and St Neots-Grafham Water part of Huntingdonshire. It is known as Airspace Deployment 6 (AD6).
Many rural villages in South Cambridgeshire previously quiet are now getting much aircraft noise, affecting their health and wellbeing.
A key team of residents and councillors set up a public meeting on 5th July 2022 to find out how widespread is the aircraft noise problem. The official name of the group is RELAS (REject Luton Airport Stacking).
The meeting at Little Gransden Village Hall was very well attended by over 160 people and standing room only. The areas represented ranged from Arbury in the City, to all Caldecote Ward villages, across to Potton in Huntingdonshire.
The main points of discussion at the meeting is available for you to read here and include the following:
- impact of the new airspace changes are worse than residents were expecting
- the consultation process during pandemic lockdown is unsatisfactory
- Luton excluding key stakeholders from engaging early in the option analysis stage (South Cambs and Cambridgeshire County Council)
- important feedback has been disregarded in making the final decision
So what is the way forward and what can residents do to register their complaints?
The AD6 change is now in the Post Implementation Review (PIR) phase. This period is from 1 June 2022 and ends on 31 May 2023. LLA and NATS will be collecting real flight performance data to present to the CAA. The objective is to assess whether the objectives for making the changes are being achieved.
This means that residents of the villages that are now “hosting” the new flightpaths should record information on the planes and times of flights, levels of noise if possible. This data should be sent to LAA regularly since we expect the flightpaths may change over time.
It is important that you let your local elected representatives know that you are now experiencing the negative impacts of the airspace change. They will keep a record of those who are being affected which will be useful in discussions with the airport authority. However, do not swamp them with data you send to the LAA as their inboxes are busy already. If notice any significant change, then do let them know.