2013-12-14 22:11:32 +0000
To: David Cameron and BAA
Ban Heathrow Night Flights before 6am!
Dear David Cameron,
I voted for you because you promised to ban a 3rd runway and to fight aircraft noise pollution at night to protect the health and lives of Londoners. You have done neither, in fact you have delayed any changes that could benefit Londoners. This month you agreed to maintain the existing horrific level of night flights until 2017!
Every single day 725,000 Londoners, a large proportion of whom are children, are woken daily from 4.30am by about 70 aircraft coming in to land at Heathrow. There is constant aircraft noise up until 9am. It is unbearable and it happens 7 days a week.
I am asking for the government to put forward immediate legislation to ban any flights before 6am and no flights before 7am on a Sunday in or out of Heathrow airport.
I voted for you because you promised to ban a 3rd runway and to fight aircraft noise pollution at night to protect the health and lives of Londoners. You have done neither, in fact you have delayed any changes that could benefit Londoners. This month you agreed to maintain the existing horrific level of night flights until 2017!
Every single day 725,000 Londoners, a large proportion of whom are children, are woken daily from 4.30am by about 70 aircraft coming in to land at Heathrow. There is constant aircraft noise up until 9am. It is unbearable and it happens 7 days a week.
I am asking for the government to put forward immediate legislation to ban any flights before 6am and no flights before 7am on a Sunday in or out of Heathrow airport.
Why is this important?
Londoners should not have their human rights and their physical and mental health abused in the interests of guarding the profits of a few big businesses. Most of the owners of BAA are not even UK businesses! A recent study also blew apart the myth that early morning flights benefit the UK economy, this is not proven at all, although it is a huge part of the BAA campaign to maintain night flights based on skewed figures.
BAA are so unscrupulous that they have even worked the fines they incur by contravening night flight limits, into their yearly budget. Therefore they operate as they please, are beholden to no-one and there is no recourse against them at all. Complaints are simply logged and filed away. A victory at the EU Courts several years ago to ban night flights to Heathrow, as it was seen as contravening human rights, was actually contested by the UK government and eventually overthrown. Those are the lengths to which government leaders go to in our country, to protect big business to the detriment of the hundreds of thousands of normal citizens. It is a disgrace for a country hailed for being a pioneer of human rights and political correctness, to abuse its own citizens human rights in such a blatant manner.
Night flights cause intense sleep deprivation, children suffer at school and their ability to concentrate is severely affected, adults cannot work adequately due to tiredness. The overall negative effect on the economy is vast due to a physically and mentally depleted workforce that cannot perform. This is a breach of the human rights of the 725,000 Londoners who are affected by aircraft noise on a daily basis.
I can personally vouch for this. I live under the flight path and am woken daily at 4.30am. It severely affects my ability to work and has definitely affected my health. These flights are totally unnecessary at such an early time of the day and are at the expense of hundreds of thousands of Londoners. London is our capital city, it makes no sense to route our major airport over the most densely populated part of the country.
To put it into context, Heathrow accounts for 12% of the aircraft noise pollution in the whole of the EU. By comparison CDG Paris accounts for 0.01% This shows you how many citizens are horribly affected by this daily and constant noise abuse. Somebody needs to stand up against big business and stand up for the people of London. The government cannot continue to let 725,000 people suffer daily sleep deprivation just to protect a few foreign businesses, this is a national disgrace!
BAA are so unscrupulous that they have even worked the fines they incur by contravening night flight limits, into their yearly budget. Therefore they operate as they please, are beholden to no-one and there is no recourse against them at all. Complaints are simply logged and filed away. A victory at the EU Courts several years ago to ban night flights to Heathrow, as it was seen as contravening human rights, was actually contested by the UK government and eventually overthrown. Those are the lengths to which government leaders go to in our country, to protect big business to the detriment of the hundreds of thousands of normal citizens. It is a disgrace for a country hailed for being a pioneer of human rights and political correctness, to abuse its own citizens human rights in such a blatant manner.
Night flights cause intense sleep deprivation, children suffer at school and their ability to concentrate is severely affected, adults cannot work adequately due to tiredness. The overall negative effect on the economy is vast due to a physically and mentally depleted workforce that cannot perform. This is a breach of the human rights of the 725,000 Londoners who are affected by aircraft noise on a daily basis.
I can personally vouch for this. I live under the flight path and am woken daily at 4.30am. It severely affects my ability to work and has definitely affected my health. These flights are totally unnecessary at such an early time of the day and are at the expense of hundreds of thousands of Londoners. London is our capital city, it makes no sense to route our major airport over the most densely populated part of the country.
To put it into context, Heathrow accounts for 12% of the aircraft noise pollution in the whole of the EU. By comparison CDG Paris accounts for 0.01% This shows you how many citizens are horribly affected by this daily and constant noise abuse. Somebody needs to stand up against big business and stand up for the people of London. The government cannot continue to let 725,000 people suffer daily sleep deprivation just to protect a few foreign businesses, this is a national disgrace!
How it will be delivered
By hand to 10 Downing Street!
