Gatwick Airport has submitted an application to the Planning Inspectorate to convert its current emergency runway, the northern runway, into a second operational runway.
The application is to rebuild the runway, currently used as a standby and for maintenance, so that it can be brought into routine use for smaller departing aircraft.
The proposals would mean repositioning the runway further north by 12m to meet required safety standards; the expansion of both the North and South terminal buildings; other airport facilities including a replacement waste facility, a new hangar, and new fire training grounds; new office space (9,000m2 floorspace) and 1,000 new hotel rooms over three new hotels; and an additional 18,500 car parking spaces distributed across several new car park areas.
The proposal is considered a nationally significant infrastructure project (NSIP) and, as such, requires a Development Consent Order from the government rather than planning permission from the local planning authority.
Tandridge District, together with nine other District and County authorities, is directly affected by the proposal and the Councils have been working together to understand the airport’s plans and how they would impact on the everyday lives of residents and businesses in the District. The Council has also commissioned separate independent advice looking, in particular, at noise and air quality.
The developments being proposed by Gatwick, although outside of the District area, are very close and have a range of potential impacts including:
* Strategic transportation implications with the need for a strategy covering rail, bus and private car access to an expanded airport which, if not achieved, means more car journeys to the airport and potential congestion on roads around the District.
* Noise from an increased number of aircraft overflying the District’s airspace and its settlements (such as Lingfield, Smallfield and Horne).
* Increased risk of flooding, for example that surface water from the airport will be drained into the District’s rivers and streams.
* Economically, particularly in respect of increased employment opportunities.
* Increased demand for housing local to the expanded airport.
* Pressure for expanded off-airport car parking development.
Next steps:
The Planning Inspectorate has decided to accept Gatwick’s application as properly made. Gatwick will now publish notice of acceptance of its application (a section 56 notice), which is when affected parties can make representations to the Planning Inspector, giving them the right to appear at the public examination which is currently scheduled to run for the first six months of 2024.
More details here: click here
