2018 In Focus

 

Jan 9. BIM AFOLAMI MP HOLDS DEBATE ON LUTON AIRPORT EXPANSION IN PARLIAMENT and ACHIEVES SOME SUCCESSFUL OUTCOMES.

Bim Afolami MP held a debate in Westminster Hall on Luton Airport expansion, in response to the airport’s announcement last month that it plans to more than double its passenger numbers to 38 million per annum.



Mr Afolami explained to the Minister and others present that the number of passengers per year has increased by 70% over the last seven years, and that noise complaints have increase 22-fold over the last two years alone. Night flights have increased by 25% in the last two years, and traffic through neighbouring villages is a worsening problem. He described how Luton is an unsuitable and unsustainable airport for expansion of such magnitude.

 

Mr Afolami highlighted the conflict of interest that exists as the airport is owned by London Luton Airport Ltd on behalf of Luton Borough Council, which is currently the authority responsible for setting passenger limits.

 

Mr Afolami said in his speech: “Luton Borough Council’s ownership of Luton airport, which generated a net profit of roughly £47 million in the last financial year, coupled with the huge increase in flight noise for many thousands of my constituents and across Hertfordshire, as I have already demonstrated, as well as with the huge increase in passenger numbers, leaves many of my constituents feeling that Luton Borough Council has one real interest: growing passenger numbers and therefore revenue for its airport. That interest has been pursued without any real consideration for the significant negative impacts on the people of Hertfordshire that I have outlined here today. As one of my constituents put it to me, Bedfordshire gets the gain, and Hertfordshire gets the pain.”


Anne Main MP (below) reiterated many of the same points on behalf of her St Albans constituents but added that the average noise levels used to record  flights over homes masked the real problem as at peak times the decibel levels were very high. Additionally LBC had failed to address many other issues raised by residents.

















Paul Maynard MP(above), a Parliamentary Under Secretary of State in the Department for Transport responded with a box ticking exercise justifying the current situation and the policies in force. He suggested that local groups and resident should consult with LBC on future actions AND then confirmed on behalf of the Government that the proposed expansion will be a decision taken by the Planning Inspectorate with reference back to the Secretary of State, and therefore that it will not fall to Luton Borough Council to approve the decision.


After the debate, Mr Afolami said: “I am very pleased to have had such a considered and helpful response from the Government on this important issue. I have written to the Minister to ask for clarity on exactly how matters will proceed and will continue to monitor the issue closely.”


WANT TO SEE THE PARLIAMENT DEBATE VIDEO?

Click on this link:  : http://parliamentlive.tv/event/index/e08f0ef8-7a1e-4f0f-8eb7-03162020d676?in=11:00:03

Clearing the air - A report by Alan Bunting, editor of The Harpenden Society Newsletter

The Harpenden Society’s public meeting on Feb 8 was all about the degree of freshness of the air we breathe. The guest speaker Professor Ranjeet Sokhi ( below with Society chair Philip Waters) is director of the University of Hertfordshire’s Centre for Atmospheric Research at Hatfield. The rhetorical title of his talk, ‘Air Pollution – How Fresh is our Fresh Air’ served to highlight the growing concerns throughout the world, especially in urban areas, about poor air quality and its inevitably harmful effects, most obviously on human health.














   








He was keen to emphasise that contamination of the air in a particular location such as Harpenden High Street could not be blamed wholly on pollutants emitted from vehicle exhausts or smoking chimneys in the immediate area. Satellite observations had shown that concentrations of pollution could be moved vast distances across the globe, often affected by climate interactions.


    Instrumentation, including for example the use of lasers, for measuring pollutants, especially the tiny particles capable of penetration deep into the lungs, was continuing to advance.  It provided an ever greater understanding of cause and effect, when set against available health statistics.


    A World Health Organisation report in 2014 concluded that ‘air pollution is the world’s largest single environmental health risk’ and it was estimated that seven million, or one in eight, premature deaths were attributable to air pollution. Meanwhile the numerous non-fatal effects included increased stroke, heart disease and respiratory disease problems.  In the UK, according to the Department for Food, Environment and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), polluted air shortened average life expectancy by about six months, the associated financial costs of which were estimated at some £16 billion.


    Particular mention was made by Ranjeet of the pollutants associated with diesel exhaust, namely nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and particulate matter (PM), though he acknowledged, during the meeting’s subsequent Q&A session, that today’s car and truck diesels, compliant with legislated ‘Euro 6’ emission standards, were among the ‘cleanest’ of road vehicle engines.  He added however ‘that there is no threshold below which health effects do not occur’.


    Agreed EU atmospheric quality standards were already in place in the UK, based on limits for PM, NO2 and Ozone (O3) per cubic metre of air, with a further limit for ultra-fine particles due for implementation in 2020. But, said Ranjeet, in reality they were targets rather than enforceable limits. The NO2 standard in particular was regularly exceeded in many places, especially in towns and cities, where it exacerbated breathing problems, most seriously for asthmatics.


    On a relatively positive note for Harpenden residents, although there were no monitoring points in the town, measurements taken across the county, including St Albans, showed a typical ‘low’ pollution level. On the day of the Harpenden Society meeting, a level 2 pollution – on a scale of 1 to 10 – was measured in towns within about a 10 mile radius.


    In contrast, a maximum level 10 had been recorded in the traffic-choked streets of Camden, north London, on a day in February.  It had been shown however that around two-thirds of London’s airborne pollution originated elsewhere, and was then carried in by climatic activity, most obviously wind. 

 

    Monitoring of average air quality in the St Albans area over the past seven years had shown a downward trend in NO2 concentrations.  Ranjeet pointed out however that it was greatly influenced by the weather. Rain cleaned the air, while cold dry conditions allowed pollutants to remain airborne.

    

    Tests undertaken by the University of Hertfordshire team in the tunnel underneath the Galleria at Hatfield had shown that fewer airborne particles came from vehicle exhausts than was often supposed – only about a third.  The remainder came from road surface and brake wear detritus and ‘resuspended’ matter, thrown-up by vehicle movement turbulence.


    One conclusion drawn from those results was that adoption of electric cars in place of diesel or petrol would not reduce real-life PM levels in the air very significantly.  Another conclusion from the team’s researches was that ultra-fine particle concentrations in the air were heavily affected by the distance of the site from a road travelled by motor vehicles and of course the density of traffic along that road.


    Global warming, although a largely separate issue from air quality, was touched on in Ranjeet’s presentation.  He pointed out that carbon dioxide (CO2) was not the only potentially harmful emission.  Others included most notably methane, widely generated by agriculture, albeit with a shorter-term effect than CO2. Black carbon, a key constituent of exhaust particulate matter, had also come to be recognised as a contributor to global warming and, as such, doubly undesirable, especially as, together with ozone, it can inhibit plant growth and therefore agricultural productivity.


    What can be done, at a practical level, to cut air pollution and also combat climate change?  Ranjeet put forward a number of measures, in approximate order of value: 1) Move from private car use to public transport (ie bus and train); 2)  Promote healthier diets by moving away from meat towards more plant-based foods; 3)  Reduce solid fuel (eg coal) burning; 4) Tighten vehicle emission and fuel efficiency standards.


    Though it is no excuse for complacency, Ranjeet pointed out that while ultra-fine particle air pollution in London was much worse than in Harpenden, the concentration measured in Karachi, Pakistan, was more than six times greater than London’s!

END

WANT TO KNOW THE DAILY AIR QUALITY:

.https://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/forecasting/

WHAT”S been happening so far.

NEW FLIGHTS

As part of the existing expansion plan SIX NEW destinations have been added:

WIZZ have daily flights to the Slovakian capital BRATISLAVA and 4 days a week...to BARI in southern Italy.

EASYJET have flights to DALAMAN in Turkey; PALERMO in Sicily; REUS in Spain and GENOA in northern Italy.


NEW TECHNOLOGY

3D sensors are being installed to measure queue length and improve  processing time.

NEW RETAIL UNITS

16 more units have been introduced since the start of 2018

NEW access route via rail - the DART

17 April marked the official start of works on the state-of-the-art £225m Luton DART fast transit system, linking London Luton Airport with Luton Airport Parkway railway station. It will take passengers less than four minutes to connect from Luton Airport Parkway to the airport terminal via Luton DART, improving rail access from central London to UK's fifth biggest airport in 30 minutes by the fastest train.

“The Luton DART will benefit not only airport passengers but also the people and businesses of Luton in that it supports our ambitions to secure long-term economic growth and ensure local people have access to high-quality employment opportunities. We are all looking forward to the Luton DART opening in 2021," Coucillor Hazel Simmons said.


The project has full planning permission from Luton and Central Bedfordshire councils, and is on track to be ready for operation by spring 2021. It will create 500 construction jobs over three years, 30 apprenticeships, and 17 permanent positions.


The Luton DART (BELOW LEFT) will be a double-shuttle, fully-automated people-mover (APM) based on latest system technology and design innovation, and capable of operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The cable-driven system is energy efficient and environmentally friendly.

The 2.1km route will run between two purpose-built stations at Bartlett Square and the airport terminal, crossing a new gateway bridge over Airport Way. In peak time, a service will leave each station every four minutes.

Sophie Dekkers, Director, UK market for easyJet, said: “easyJet welcomes the new direct rail link connecting Luton Airport Parkway train station with the airport for the enhanced passenger experience it promises to deliver. We already encourage our passengers to travel by rail and we hope the number of easyJet passengers who arrive by rail at London Luton Airport will increase with this new, faster and easier link."











REDUCING NOISE LEVELS

LLA noise contours; a graphic representation (ABOVE RIGHT) of the sound level distribution across a given area, for a defined period. In the case of the planning conditions it refers to our 92-day summer contour. PLUS they have also introduced portable noise monitors in the community. Alongside fixed monitoring terminals they are constantly measuring noise levels from departing aircraft. They have also committed £100,000 per year to insulate local properties, including installing high performance glazing and ventilation units. But they are always looking for new ways to do more.


NB. The project’s civils works will be undertaken by VolkerFitzpatrick-Kier joint venture and the transportation system by Doppelmayr Cable Car UK Ltd.


 

Vociferous disparagement of the proposal to more than double Luton Airport’s passenger handling capacity and number of flights came from some 130 local residents at a public meeting in May convened by the Harpenden Society. Their almost universal condemnation of the plans was directed at three Luton Borough councillors who sit on the board of London Luton Airport Ltd, (LLAL) following their detailed presentation of the expansion project. 


    The audience in Rothamsted Research’s Fowden Hall heard Hazel Simmons, leader of Luton Borough Council – the airport owner – LLAL chairman Andy Malcolm and chief operations officer Robin Porter, outline its ambitious and far-reaching plans for the next three decades.


    Ms Simmons asserted that the airport ‘wanted to be a good neighbour’ to surrounding communities and to that end it would be expanded ‘sustainably’, without the need for either a second runway or a lengthening of the existing runway. She maintained that the planned expansion, at a cost of some £1.5 billion, would bring more prosperity for the whole area, not just for Luton, claiming that the airport already supported, directly or indirectly, some 30,000 jobs.

     

    Mr Malcolm said 16 million passengers passed through Luton Airport in 2017, of which, incidentally, catchment area surveys had shown, about 5 million were from London and some 3 million from Hertfordshire.

















The airport was therefore approaching its present theoretical capacity of 18 million passengers per annum (ppa), a level expected to be reached by 2021.


      Luton Airport’s vision for the decades up to 2050 was for passenger capacity to increase to between 36 and 38 million ppa. The job of the airport management team was, declared Mr Malcolm, ‘to actively manage the environmental impacts through responsible and sustainable development’.  But it was clear from the Fowden Hall’s audience reaction that his assertion was widely regarded with disdain, one resident claiming that ‘aircraft noise already made life a misery’. 

  

    He hastened to remind them however that the proposal to at least double the airport’s capacity was, for the first time in its 80 years of growth, contingent on planning approval, not from the local authority – with its built-in vested interest as the airport owner – but from central government.  The Secretary of State for Transport’s remit would necessarily involve an enquiry on meeting predicted long-term civil aviation demand for all of the Greater London area, with the mooted third runway at Heathrow an inevitable contributory factor.


A planning timetable had been established.  A 10-week ‘non statutory’ stakeholder consultation would begin this summer, followed by a statutory consultation scheduled for June next year, leading to the submission of an application to the Secretary of State in late 2019, with the ‘hope’ (Mr Malcolm’s word) of securing planning consent some time during 2021. David Williams, leader of Hertfordshire County Council (HCC) and a Harpenden Town councillor, speaking from the floor, gave an assurance that HCC would be closely involved in the planning consultations.

    

    Mr Porter alleged that the projected doubling of flights and passenger numbers could be achieved with minimum additional aircraft noise or road traffic disruption – something disputed vigorously by many in the audience, based on today’s local airport-related headaches.

They cited regular noise disturbance, especially at night, and increased congestion on routes to and from the airport, notably the A1081 and Lower Luton Road through Harpenden, as well as the current crowding on Thameslink trains – before any further airport expansion.


    While admitting that airports were, by definition, ‘smelly and noisy’, Mr Porter said the noise issue in particular was being addressed through a number of measures. There had recently been a narrowing of flightpaths that were routed over less populated areas, and a requirement for today’s (less noisy) aircraft, after take-off, to climb more steeply, reducing their noise ‘footprint’.  Planes taking off to the west would be required to reach an altitude of 1000ft by the time they crossed the Thameslink rail line.


    Meanwhile, he added, a new three-minute rail link costing £225 million, connecting Thameslink’s Luton Parkway station to the airport terminal was under construction. It was designed to encourage more passengers to arrive and leave by rail rather than by car. The airport was liaising with Thameslink to improve capacity of trains serving Parkway station.

  

   However, few in the audience above appeared convinced that the planned airport expansion over the coming decades would yield worthwhile benefits for those living in its hinterland, despite Ms Simmons’ ‘good neighbour’ pledge. WRITTEN BY ALAN BUNTING, Editor The Harpenden Society Newsletter.

LUTON AIRPORT EXPANSION PLANS

Learn what it all means for Harpenden from the Airport Owners - A report from The Harpenden Society on the meeting with Luton Borough Council on Thursday May 17 Rothamsted Conf Centre.

A Report from Davenport House Surgery - Looking after the health of Harpenden residents.


At risk of cardiovascular disease?

Are you at risk of heart disease, stroke or other circulatory problems? As someone considered to be ‘at risk’, I was invited to attend a seminar run by two doctors at Davenport House Surgery on 11 December 2018.









These were the most important things I either learnt or had reinforced:

The usual stuff on smoking (don’t) and alcohol consumption (14 units maximum per week). Remember a bottle of wine has 9 units. It is recommended to have two consecutive alcohol-free days each week.


Know your BMI (Body Mass Index). 25 is generally considered overweight and 30 is obese.

Be active: 150 minutes activity per week to include 75 minutes relatively intensive activity in 15 minute stages (e.g swimming or brisk walking).


Watch your blood pressure: The textbook normal is 120/80. Preferably keep it under 140/90, but don’t worry if is a little higher. Both numbers are important. The best way to check is to test yourself twice a day for two weeks, taking three readings each time and recording the lowest reading. Then calculate the average score.


Watch your cholesterol: Have a blood test at least once a year. Understand the difference between those foods which produce bad cholesterol (e.g. red meat, saturated fats, etc.) and and good cholesterol (oily fish, nuts, vegetables, etc.) and eat less of the former and more of the latter.


Look after you mental wellbeing. Basically be sociable and avoid stress.


Chris Marsden.