The Mayor's Ambient Noise Strategy - Greater London Authority

The Mayor’s Ambient Noise Strategy Mayor of London 133
Box 43: Guidance to Civil Aviation Authority
In January 2002, the Department for Transport, Local Government and the
Regions issued ‘Guidance to the Civil Aviation Authority on environmental
objectives relating to the exercise of its air navigation functions’. 28
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Paragraph 32 stated that it had been the view of successive
Governments that ‘the balance of social and environmental advantage
lies in concentrating aircraft taking off from airports along the least
possible number of specified routes, consistent with airspace
management considerations and the overriding need for safety.’
Paragraph 34 qualified this, stating that ‘there may be local
circumstances where it is impossible to concentrate traffic over less
populated areas and where the advantage lies in dispersing traffic to
avoid the concentration of noise over noise sensitive areas.’
Paragraph 35 stated that the Director of Airspace Policy should ‘place
a high value on the legacy of planning decisions and the location of
noise-sensitive development, and generally should recognise the
importance of the long term stability of the route structure in the
vicinity of airports, since people need to know where significant
aircraft noise will be experienced.’
4C.34 UK aviation and planning policy has tended to seek to provide
predictability by, for example, designating Noise Preferential Routes for
departure. At Heathrow, alternating the use of runways gives predictable
periods of relief. Confining aircraft to certain routes enables those who
are most concerned about noise, where they have real housing choice, to
seek out quieter areas. In practice, air traffic control requirements, with
existing technology, have tended to confine aircraft to certain routes,
particularly on immediate take-off and on approach to landing. At
Heathrow, the Noise Preferential Routes which are used on departures
when the airport is on westerly operations (the predominant mode), were
designed, as far as possible, to pass between the more densely built up
areas. Limiting noise sensitive development under preferential departure
routes west of the airport does not involve a great sacrifice of potential,
since much of the land is designated Green Belt, in which development is
normally precluded.
4C.35 However, precluding noise sensitive development along the long
glideslopes on the approaches to the Heathrow Airport from the east
would be an enormous constraint on London’s development. Housing
shortages, projected housing demand, and the wide variation in individual
response, imply a more flexible approach, outside areas exposed to high
levels of noise where new housing development needs to be avoided. 29
Future changes in aircraft fleet mix and technology may have implications