Decision details

1.    The purpose of this report is to agree the Council’s response to the National Air Traffic Service (NATs) public consultation proposal. The proposal seeks to establish a new airborne hold pattern (stack) for arrivals to London Luton Airport (LLA) with associated airspace and routes.

2.    The response pertains to the National Air Traffic Service (NATS) public consultation running from the 19th October 2021 to 5th February 2021.

3.    The proposal seeks to establish a new airborne hold pattern (stack) for arrivals to London Luton Airport (LLA) with associated airspace and routes. The final approach to and departures from the runways at LLA remain unchanged. LAA currently shares arrival flows with Stansted in our area and the proposal separates them further away and higher up from the airports than currently, which the consultation says will assure a safe and efficient operation for the future. There are no proposed changes to Stansted Airport arrivals and departures.

4.     Only arrivals to LLA that need to wait for clearance to land are likely to be subject to this change by way of the routes to and from the proposed new stack. Departures will not be affected.

5.    The proposal will entail the introduction of a new holding stack over the Huntingdon area. Once arrival into LLA has been approved aircraft will descend, crossing a part of the west side of the South Cambridgeshire district over Gamlingay. Currently, a lower quantum of flights use this descent route but through this proposal the aircraft will fly at the higher altitude. This proposal will particularly impact on the wards of Gamlingay and The Mordens with Bassingbourn affected to a lesser extent.

6.    After an initial examination of the consultation documents a number of GCSP concerns and questions were found to be shared Cambridgeshire County Council.

7.    Consequently, GCSP (as well as Cambridgeshire County Council) requested a meeting with NATS to discuss these issues. Following this meeting officers have concluded:

·         That in order to submit a fully informed response to the NATS proposal further information is required.

·         This includes data and clarity around the predicted percentage increase of flights descending over the South Cambridgeshire area via the Huntingdon, Gamlingay approach corridor.

·         That in order to assess and gauge the impacts (not just noise) that an increase in flights might have on the amenity of Gamlingay’s communities a baseline of pre pandemic flight numbers needs to be determined.

·         An acknowledgement that whilst aircraft will fly at a higher altitude of 8,000ft to 7,000ft and 7,000ft to 6,000ft in the Huntingdon - Gamlingay new approach corridor, government guidance also stipulates that if an aircraft has an altitude of 4,000ft-7,000ft minimising the impact of aviation noise should be prioritised. As Gamlingay will be in a new flightpath funnel the addition of more information explaining the extent of these impacts would have been helpful. This would have allowed GCSP to ascertain whether there could be concentrated noise pollution in this area.

·         Concerns exist around the divorce of the consultation material for the Airspace changes from the parallel process for a Development Consent Order for the expansion of Luton Airport currently being pursued by LLA. The DCO which is at the Scoping Report stage proposes to increase the number of flights that the airport is permitted to accommodate. Whilst the NATs proposal does factor in a number of impacts in the form of forecast predictions to 2032 these are yet unconfirmed numbers and may increase.

·         As a result of the above, the response sets out GCSP’s position on the proposal advising that the Council is not sufficiently reassured that the proposal will not be harmful to the amenity of residents of the district and urges NATS to do more to engage with the Council and concerned local communities.

8.    A response letter raising these issues is included as an appendix to this decision.

To agree:

a.    The response letter to the National Air Traffic Service (NATs) public consultation proposal.

b.    To delegate any further minor editing changes to the response letter to the Joint Director for Planning and Economic Development where they are technical matters.

To respond to issues that have been identified following consideration of the consultation material.