Council mounts legal challenge to curb night-flights

8.33.00pm GMT Mon 17th Mar 2008

• A HIGH Court challenge is being mounted by Richmond Council, along with two other boroughs, as part of an ongoing campaign to ban night-flights at Heathrow.

The Council contends that the current night-flights regime is illegal as some of the flights are noisier than are allowed by the Government's own rules. Richmond, Wandsworth and Windsor and Maidenhead Councils will put their case at a Judicial Review in the High Court on May 20. If successful, it could force Transport Secretary, Ruth Kelly, to slash the number of aircraft allowed to arrive at Heathrow before 6am. The Councils will argue that the Minister is failing in her duty to protect residents from excessive night-noise. They will also say that the Government ignored its own policy directive which requires it to "bear down on noise."

Leader of Richmond Council, Cllr Serge Lourie, said this week: "We believe that the current noise from night-flights is both excessive and illegal and this challenge is another important step along the road to our ultimate goal: a total ban on night-flights. With the planned expansion of the airport, it is all the more important that this challenge succeeds."