New Night Flight Threat

9.34.26am BST (GMT +0100) Wed 6th Oct 2004

There is great local concern about reports that the government is considering allowing a big increase in night flights when its next consultation paper is launched in the new year. A tripling of flights has been mooted. The reason given is that new jets are quieter.

Vincent Cable said that: "for those residents under the flight path, this reported proposal will be very worrying. It is only a few months since the issue of night flights came before the European Court of Justice and residents still feel very passionately about sleep deprivation. Night flights are unnecessary provocation, caused almost exclusively by a wish by the government to appease British Airways over a handful of far eastern flights. Far from expanding them, the government should be seeking to phase them out".