Airport growth: yes from business, no from residents

London Luton Airport Operations Limited (LLAOL) announced on Monday that 65 per cent of the responses to a recent consultation were in favour of plans to grow the airport.

But one campaign group, Hertfordshire Against Luton Expansion (HALE), said the figures released by the airport did not show the full picture.

The full breakdown, provided with the airport’s planning application, shows only 26 per cent of responses from members of the public were positive, while 64 per cent were against expansion. The remainder were undecided.

Concerns included increased noise, scepticism over the number of new jobs promised, further traffic congestion and increased pollution.

But public responses made up less than 40 per cent of the total 1,360 received. The majority came from airport staff, airlines, unions, local businesses and chambers of commerce.

Airlines and airport staff were 100 per cent in favour, and the majority of responses from local businesses and chambers of commerce were positive, citing economic benefits and better ability to compete with other airports.

HALE spokesman Andrew Lambourne said: “The spin doctors at the airport must have worked overtime to gloss the community response data.

“For a start, given the major impact which expansion of Luton Airport would have on local communities, a total of just 1360 responses to a so-called public consultation is a derisory number.

“The main reason for that is that the roadshow events were very poorly publicised and arranged right at the last minute, so very few people turned up.

“Only about half the responses are from the general public at all, once you sift out chambers of commerce, airport staff and other stakeholders.

“And of the people who did attend the exhibitions – and can therefore be regarded as informed – 75 per cent of them oppose the expansion plans.”

LLAOL said on Monday that it had listened to feedback and amended its planning application to add two extra ‘noise mitigation measures’ – a new limit on night flights and a reduction in noise violation limits, with penalties for breaches from 2014.

Airport managing director Glyn Jones said: “LLAOL has listened to the local community and has put in place a robust plan to deliver a balanced, sustainable development, which offers a number of significant economic and social benefits.

“These include the creation of approximately 5,100 new jobs, increasing value to the local economy, and improving the built environment of the airport”.