Gatwick Airport second runway plan is contrary to national aviation policy

Gatwick Airport Limited has applied for an Order Granting Development Consent for the Gatwick Airport Northern Runway Project. The CPRE Sussex submission to the planning inquiry focuses on UK aviation policy. and strongly opposes this second runway plan.  

Gatwick is currently a single-runway airport. The applicant themselves make this clear in the opening sentence of the Executive Summary and p19 para 2.2.2 of their Planning Statement.

This application clearly seeks to create a new second runway that can be used simultaneously with the single existing runway. To do this entails progressively reshaping Gatwick Airport until 2038 to accommodate the new second runway and associated works. This goes well beyond the scope of making best use of existing infrastructure.

The applicant’s proposal cuts across established policy (set out in the ‘important and relevant’ Airports National Policy Statement) for any new runway in the south-east of England to be based at Heathrow.

CPRE Sussex views this application as at best premature and at worst highly damaging.

Read:

CPRE submission on aviation policy for Gatwick Northern Runway inquiry

Gatwick Airport Northern Runway Planning Statement