Challenge to Night Flights proposals commences 14th December

in an attempt to stop possible trebling of aircraft before 6am.

The action has been brought by Wandsworth and Richmond councils who have fought a series of legal battles over the years to prevent residents being woken up by the 16 flights that come in between 4.30am and 6am.

Ministers are consulting in two stages on the new arrangements. The first completed on October 29 and the second is set to start on January 17. Unless the councils are able to overturn the plans the new regime is likely to take effect from October 2005.

The latest judicial review centres on Government claims that it is prevented by the EU from amending current noise classifications for aircraft - even though it has admitted that the engine noise data, on which its night noise scheme is based, is faulty.

Last year Wandsworth noise experts revealed that many of the aircraft arriving before 6am had been assigned too low a noise rating.  This is because most of the early morning arrivals at Heathrow are B747-400s with Rolls Royce engines. These have been allocated a score of 2 points when the Department for Transport's own research shows that they should be in a QC4 or QC8 category.

The result was that the true noise level was 75 per cent higher than claimed.

Wandsworth Council leader Edward Lister said:

"We don't think any of these 16 flights are necessary. Ministers never stop to think of the damage they are doing to people's health. It's all about bending the rules so that the airlines can squeeze in even more early
morning flights. We are determined to stop the disruption getting any worse.

"If ministers wanted to improve the noise climate they could. All they would need to do is adjust the engine noise data to bring it in line with operational performance. Nothing in the EU guidelines prevents them from
doing this."

Richmond Council leader Tony Arbour added:

"We want an end to night flights, this environmental nightmare for residents
throughout west London. The lives of thousands of people are ruined by aircraft noise and the possibility of flights being trebled is too awful to contemplate.

"This legal challenge is crucial. If we win, it would be a huge milestone along the road to a total ban on night-time flying at Heathrow."

The councils will be arguing that the Government's consultation was misleading and therefore unlawful. If the action is successful ministers could be forced to re-run the first round of consultation. They would then
face extreme difficulty in meeting their original timetable for the new regime to start in October.

December 6, 2004