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You will be able to get instant news and updates on our Facebook page
If you want to contact your MP, MEP, local councillors or London Assembly members click here
In July 2011 Fight the Flights, the organisation which fought the expansion of City Airport, merged with HACAN. HACAN East will take up issues around City Airport – read more
Keep meaningful runway alternation
'The nightmare of Night Flights’: To get a ban on night flights before
6am
‘Give Us A Break, Gov’: To get relief for residents suffering constant noise
These are our three main campaigns for 2011/12. They are each explained in more detail further down this page.
A new report by HACAN released today (31/1/12) claims that it is not a lack of airport capacity which threatens London’s position as the top city in Europe to do business but its poor environment. Too Dirty for Business? concludes that London’s excellent transport links to the rest of the world make it Europe’s premier business city. However, that position is under threat because many of its rivals score more highly on quality of life, pollution and a lack of traffic congestion, all key considerations for businesses when deciding where to locate. The report is published on the same day as London First’s Connectivity Commission is launching its findings. It is expected to call for more airport capacity in the South East.
Read the HACAN press release
Read the full report
There are mixed views in West London about an Estuary Airport. Some residents support it as it would remove the constant noise from their areas. Others are concerned that job losses would blight West London as Heathrow directly employs over 76,000 people. The bigger question is whether extra capacity is actually needed. Even at Heathrow nearly a quarter of flights are short-haul. If policies were in place to enable these passengers to switch to rail or do their business via video-conferencing, that would free up capacity for additional long-haul flights from the developing economies of Asia, Africa and South America. The question is not whether new capacity is required but whether we are making the most intelligent use of existing capacity.”
Read the full press release
HACAN is calling on the Government to include plans to change the way it measures aircraft noise in its draft aviation policy, expected to go out to public consultation before the end of March. The current method the Government uses varies from the one recommended by the European Union. It also contradicts the guidelines for noise annoyance recommended by the World Health Organisation. The EU estimates that around 720,000 people are disturbed by noise from Heathrow aircraft. The UK Government puts it much lower at less than 300,000. HACAN Chair John Stewart said: “The way UK governments have traditionally measured noise no longer tallies with reality. Using its method, aircraft noise ceases to be a problem around Barnes. It defies reality to say that people in places like Putney, Fulham, Battersea and Clapham are not disturbed by aircraft noise. We are calling on the Government to ditch this outdated way of measuring aircraft noise.”
Read the HACAN press release
A major new report published yesterday (19/12/11) by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) reveals that 28% of the people in Europe affected by aircraft noise live under the Heathrow flight paths. A total of over 700,000 people are affected by Heathrow aircraft. The report calls for measures, such as steeper descents by aircraft, to mitigate the impact of noise on residents. It also urges airport owners to “engage constructively” with residents.
Read the CAA report
Read the HACAN Press Release
It’s a first! HACAN and BAA have submitted a joint paper to the Government. Over the past few months we have been working with BAA, BA and (Air Traffic Control) NATS exploring any common proposals we could send to the Government in response to its Scoping Study (the first step in drawing up its new aviation policy).
We have got a fair bit out of the joint working:
Aviation Minister Theresa Villiers has encouraged this sort of initiative. We are hopeful that the Government will include the proposals in its draft aviation policy which will go out for public consultation in Spring 2012.
Read the full joint paper
Aviation Minister Theresa Villiers told the House of Commons yesterday (15/11/11) that: “we are trialling the tactical use of greater operational freedoms at Heathrow. This is very sensitive, because those freedoms mean that occasionally there will be some incursions into the respite period, with occasional use of both runways for departures, or, occasionally, use of both runways for arrivals. However, I emphasise that that is not mixed mode and the Government remain committed to runway alternation and the benefits it brings. Very careful consideration will be given to the impact of the trial on local communities. I emphasise that the measures being trialled are only to be used to improve resilience, and prevent or recover from disruption, and not to increase capacity, which remains capped at current levels.”
You can read the full aviation debate in Hansard and highlights of it on our Facebook page – see above.
“We hear a lot of ritualistic grumbling from the aviation industry about levels of Air Passenger Duty but they conveniently forget to mention the £11 billion a year subsidy they enjoy from paying no fuel duty and no VAT” – read more
“Heathrow matters to business but less so than the aviation industry claims. There are other factors which usually matter more ” – read more
Shadow Transport Secretary will say in a speech today to the Airport Operators Association: “the local environmental impact means this is off the agenda.”
HACAN Chair John Stewart said: “This is the best Christmas present residents could have asked for. I hope that the aviation industry will now accept it is flogging the deadest of dead horses if it continues to push for a 3rd runway.”
HACAN has welcomed the appointment of Putney MP Justine Greening as Transport Secretary. We see it as a clear signal that, despite recent pressure from the aviation industry, the Government has no intention of going back on its decision scrap plans for a 3rd runway at Heathrow. Whilst in opposition Justine Greening fought courageously to stop Labour’s plans to expand Heathrow. We are confident that under Justine Greening and aviation minister Theresa Villiers expansion plans will be well and truly off the agenda.
Predictably, within hours of Justine Greening’s appointment, the aviation industry’s PR machine sprung into action trying to discredit her. British Airways boss Willie Walsh was quoted in the Telegraph saying she was “compromised” over Heathrow expansion. The Financial Times (£) carried the same story. And her appointment seems to have prompted a major article in theTimes (£) by its economic editor David Wighton, ‘Can growth take off without a third runway?’ In the article Wighton writes (£): “Ms Greening impressed many in the transport world as a junior Treasury minister… From the aviation industry’s point of view there is just one small snag. Ms Greening is the MP for Putney, which sits under the flight path to Heathrow, and has been one of the most prominent opponents of expansion at the airport.”
The industry is making a lot of Justine Greening’s perceived conflict of interest of representing a constituency under the flight path. But this is a cover for the fact it has a transport secretary who doesn’t share their view on a key aspect of aviation policy. As Zac Goldsmith, the Conservative MP for the neighbouring West London constituency of Richmond, tweeted: “BA boss says Transport Sec is ‘compromised’ re Heathrow. That’s what not agreeing with BA is called?” Philip Hammond, Greening’s predecessor, also represented a constituency heavily overflown by Heathrow aircraft – but there was no mention from the aviation industry he might have a conflict of interest.
While the Government is committed to retaining runway alternation (the practice whereby planes switch runways at 3pm to give residents in the boroughs closest to Heathrow a half day’s break from the noise), there is real concern amongst residents that these new proposals will very noticeably eat into runway alternation. The concern was heightened when it became clear that a plane could use the ‘wrong’ runway if it is just 10 minutes late – at present planes are on average 12 minutes late. BAA argues that the greater flexibility will allow it to reduce the number of flights which depart late in the evening.
A 4 month trial will take place of the new arrangements from November to February and then from July to September next year. If, AFTER THE TRIALS, THE Government is minded to make it permanent, the proposals will go out to public consultation.
BAA is monitoring the trials on a daily basis publishing the results at http://heathrowtrial.com
Briefing from HACAN
HACAN launches campaign
For Details of the Trials from BAA
Read the Joint Press Notice from Department for Transport
Read the Report from the South-East Airports Task Force
Read the Written Ministerial Statement
Read Sunday Times article
Anger at HACAN AGM over the proposals – see press release
John Stewart, the Chair of HACAN, was barred from entering America. Stewart was turned back at JFK airport on Thursday 229th September after six hours of question by the FBI, the Secret Service and the American Immigration Service. No reason was given. He had been invited by American aviation campaigners to talk about the success in stopping further expansion plans at Heathrow. Stewart said: “since they gave no reason it simply seems the American authorities wanted to keep me out of the country because I was centrally involved in the Heathrow campaign. It will not affect my speaking engagements in America as I will be skyped into them but it is worrying if the American authorities are barring people entry just because they don’t agree with their views”.
See report from London Tonight
In the bookshops now!
Why
Noise Matters
A Worldwide Perspective on the Problems, Policies and Solutions
John Stewart with Arline Bronzaft, Francis McManus, Nigel Rodgers and Val Weedon
Published: August 2011
Paperback
£24.99
“After reading it you'll never again dismiss noise as a pollutant
that has little relevance to people or the planet”. Caroline Lucas,
Green Party Leader.
A new report from AirportWatch shows that Heathrow is better connected to the world’s business centres than any of its European ‘rivals’ – read the report
The Times and the Telegraph (29/6/11) featured calls from sections of business and industry for more airport capacity in the South East. A week earlier British Airways Chief Executive, Willie Walsh, said that plans for a third runway were ‘dead’ and that BA would be transferring more passengers at Madrid Airport following its recent link-up with Iberian Airlines.
HACAN Chair John Stewart argues there is no economic reason to expand Heathrow (in a piece that first appeared in the Times, 29/6/11):
See also Andrew Gilligan in the Sunday Telegraph
A briefing by HACAN on why was launched at a meeting hosted by London Assembly member Val Shawcross at City Hall.
Read the HACAN briefing.
“The plane traffic continues unabatedly. Strange as it sounds, but we are dreading the idea of living with open windows when summer approaches”. And they live over 15 miles from Heathrow
Read more of the resident’s stories
Read the consultation document
Read HACAN’s response to the Scoping Document.
Read the HACAN Press
Release
The economic
case for Heathrow expansion doesn’t stack up
Aviation Minister Theresa Villiers announced that the Government will issue a detailed consultation on the current night flight regime at Heathrow, Stansted and Gatwick “next spring.” Speaking on 24th May in an adjournment debate in Parliament, initiated by Brentford and Isleworth Conservative MP Mary Macleod, she said that the night flight decision would be “one of the most important issues I will face as a Minister.”
View the debate in Parliament
Read the HACAN Press Release
A major report launched in the House of Commons on 27th January at a meeting hosted by Zac Goldsmith MP shows that a ban on night flights at Heathrow before 6am could be expected to have overall benefits for the wider economy. The new report, commissioned by HACAN from the respected Dutch economists CE Delft, has found that a night flight ban before 6am could benefit the national economy by as much as £860 million over a 10 year period.. The big savings would be in the monetary costs associated with sleep deprivation. Because of the huge number of people living under the Heathrow night flight path, these savings could be expected to outweigh any loss of income to the aviation industry. CE Delft argues that the national economy would only be harmed if none of the passengers who currently arrive on the flights before 6am failed to transfer to flights arriving at other times. If that were to take place, the national economy could lose up to £35 million over a 10 year period, but the report states that the chances of that happening are “highly unlikely”. John Stewart, Chair of HACAN, said, “We commissioned this report to test out the claims that a night flight ban would damage the economy. Its dramatic findings destroy the last remaining argument for night flights”.
The launch of the report marks the start of a campaign by HACAN to get a ban on night flights between 11pm and 6am when the new night flight regime is introduced in 2012. Later this year the Government is expected to consult on a new night flight regime at Heathrow, Stansted and Gatwick. The current agreement with the airlines comes to an end in October 2012.
Read the full report
Join our night flight campaign
Read the basic information on night flights
Find out how night flights damage our health
Read people’s stories
High-Speed Rail News
On the day the Government launched the consultation on its plans for a new high speed rail line (28/2/11) research by the campaign group HACAN has revealed that, if a third runway at Heathrow ever went ahead, the Chilterns would be overflown by 50,000 aircraft a year – see press release for details.
There is a lot of business support for high-speed rail but those
businesses opposed are mounting a high-profile campaign. On 10th March a number
of them wrote a letter to the Daily Telegraph opposing the scheme. But most
of the businesses had links to the road or aviation industry. Read the full
revelations
The HACAN Position
HACAN supports a high-speed rail scheme that takes planes out of the air and cars off the road. The interests of the people of the West Midlands, the Chilterns and other areas through which it passes must be fully taken into consideration but this Government should be applauded as being the first one for over 50 years as seeing rail rather than road or air as the way to transport people the length of Britain.
Victory Against All The Odds – new book from HACAN on the successful Heathrow Campaign
The 52-page, well-illustrated book by HACAN Chair John Stewart tells the tale of how the plans for the massive expansion of Heathrow Airport, including a third runway, were stopped. The book outlines the strategy and the tactics used. It is an inspiring story. It is a very human story. But it also contains valuable lessons for campaigners wherever they live and whatever their cause
The book costs £5 (incl. p and p), cheques payable to HACAN and sent to 13 Stockwell Road, London SW9 9AU
Read the book.