FROM: Steve Dawe, Press Officer, Kent Green Party
October 2010
Kent Green Party covers Kent and Medway with a network of local branches and has about 45,000 supporters in this area. As part of the Green Party of England and Wales, Kent Green Party supports initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and opposes those proposals which add to them. Consequently, we are opposed to aviation expansion in the UK and support increased taxation on flights and ideally on aviation fuel to reduce emissions and to push businesses and travellers towards less polluting transport modes.
1. CONSIDERING NOISE AND HEALTH
2. PEAK OIL AS AN OBSTACLE TO CIVIL AVIATION EXPANSION
3. NEW RESEARCH SHOWS AVIATION AND SHIPPING POLLUTION WORSE THAN EXPECTED
4. LOCAL FOOD NOT AIR FREIGHTED FRUIT AND VEG
5. THANET DISTRICT COUNCIL AND ASSOCIATED DOCUMENTATION ON NIGHT FLIGHTS
Introduction:
Manston Airport proposes to have more night flights. To do this ignores the known health impacts of aircraft noise. Research around the world shows exposure to aircraft noise is damaging to health and even impairs learning in children. Since half of the EU’s population is exposed to noise levels likely to damage their health, according to World Health Organisation standards, this is not a minor issue.[1]
How productive will people in Thanet be if their sleep is disturbed, perhaps by noisy freight-carrying aircraft at night? The health evidence collected by researchers throughout the world (see below) is that there is a strong association between aviation noise at night and blood pressure problems. There are also associations with increasing stress and anxiety. Some studies show increases in allergies – especially amongst children. But more worrying is evidence that the learning ability of children is appreciably reduced if they live near busy airports. Near major airports, elderly people are more prone to die at earlier ages from heart and circulation problems.
Manston may opt for more air freight, bringing in higher value light weight items that are passed on to the China Gateway for distribution. Since employment in warehousing is low density ( perhaps as little as 13 jobs an acre) and airports similarly use large areas of land for very little employment, we should all look sceptically at claims of significant jobs from Manston’s expansion – or the China Gateway for that matter. We are still very much in recession and no regional airport in the UK is doing well at present. If successful, Manston and the China Gateway could potentially generate a lot more local air pollution from increased traffic. But oil prices are rising again as we head rapidly to the global peak of cheap, recoverable oil supplies (see below), so success from these initiatives seems very unlikely.
Any believed gain in jobs for Thanet at Manston has to be set against the losses of productivity and skills which are created by ill-health from noise and associated air pollution. What about the alternative of a combination of Pleasurama in Ramsgate, a revived Dreamland and Margate sea front and the creation of all-weather leisure facilities at Manston instead of airport expansion. Couple this with the Turner centre and the possibility of a creative quarter in Margate copying Folkestone’s and you might have an overall economic strategy that is more sustainable than more warehouses and more aircraft. Promotion of the No Use Empty approach to empty commercial properties – renting them at low rents rather than keeping them empty - to local arts groups and other locally-based organisations – could help fill up long-term empty properties. Thanet’s tourism has been day tripper-based for too long: more leisure and cultural facilities could change this.
It is a practical impossibility for the UK to cut greenhouse gas emissions if aviation use is not constrained. If aviation emissions are averaged across households, then each UK household is making about one third of its carbon emissions by the flights its members take. This is accomplished by a small proportion of households making a lot of flights and accounting for a lot of emissions in consequence. Even more surprising, the UK is top in the world for aviation emissions per adult - far ahead of the USA and other rich countries. Currently, each UK adult averages about 603 kg of carbon emissions from aviation use per year whilst the US average is only 275 kg per adult per year.
Journeys to Europe can be made by rail. This alone would cut emissions from aviation significantly.
Domestic tourism and rail travel to the continent can substitute for flights, helping to boost UK tourism revenues. Kent Green Party wants all of Kent’s airports converted to other leisure uses to support domestic tourism, not international flights.
Each year, civil aviation is already getting about £9 billion in subsidies from Government, particularly towards transport infrastructure serving airports. Each year, emissions from aviation in Europe increase by about 6% - the rate of increase of any sector. It is impossible to fight climate change by expanding airports.
It is also clear that both Lydd Airport and Manston, like other regional airports, showed losses even before the recession. Why on earth would councillors in Shepway want to fly jobs out of the country by supporting tourism elsewhere in the world? Lydd, like Manston, can and should be an all-weather leisure site, not an airport. The rising cost of oil, and the impact of rising energy and food bills upon household spending, may well curb this planned airport expansion before real damage is done. Let us hope so.
Looking at these issues in more detail:
CONSIDERING NOISE AND HEALTH
Airport expansion should be stopped on public health grounds. A large amount of research indicates damage to the intellectual development of children exposed to high levels of aircraft noise. Children are a high-risk group vulnerable to the effects of chronic aircraft noise exposure: Birmingham Airport anti-noise group: http://www.bhamantinoise.org.
The World Health Organization has also recently emphasised "the striking contribution of noise to premature deaths from disease".[2] Kent Green Party is calling for airport expansion at Lydd, Manston, Biggin Hill, Heathrow and elsewhere to be stopped on public health grounds.
If a household was guilty of the prolonged loud noise of typical aircraft late at night, its inhabitants could expect a visit from the Police, and, if they persisted, prosecution. However, if noise is made from the overflight of aircraft, those disturbed by it are not protected by law. Instead, aircraft may disrupt our sleep and make our working days more difficult, with the most serious effects upon children’s concentration and ability to learn.
Since we already know that aviation is the fastest growing source of greenhouse gas emissions in Europe as well,[3] the noise factor provides another reason to curb airport expansion. Kent Green Party will continue to argue for minor airports like Lydd and Manston to be converted to leisure uses and housing. People have a right to sleep and a right to be able to peacefully live and work without major noise disturbances. We will continue to press decision-makers to withdraw the £9 billion subsidy to civil aviation each year and to protect the public from irresponsible aviation expansion.
PEAK OIL AS AN OBSTACLE TO CIVIL AVIATION EXPANSION
There are a number of major reports which examine the research on the global peak of cheap, recoverable oil supplies and conclude that a peak in such supplies is imminent – usually referred to as ‘Peak Oil.’
Authoritative reports have been prepared by groups such as: by the UK Energy Research Council: http://www.ukerc.ac.uk/
The previous Government commissioned research on Peak Oil but did not release it to the public.
The current Government is refusing Freedom of Information requests to allow the documents it holds on Peak Oil to be released to the media:
The German armed forces have investigated Peak Oil and conclude that the Peak of cheap recoverable oil supplies is this year, 2010. Their report, leaked to the German media, is clearly concerned about public reactions to the impacts of Peak Oil upon prices. Ref: http://www.energybulletin.net/
Not unlike the Green Party of England and Wales, The Transition Towns movement, active throughout the UK, has based its efforts to make local communities more sustainable upon two concerns: the threat of climate change and the imminence of a Peak in global oil supplies. Since the latter is commonly discussed in meetings of this Movement and in those of other environmentally-aware bodies throughout the country, it is hardly sensible that the Government attempt to suppress information on the topic: particularly as it has major implications for aviation expansion.
What implications might a long-term rising trend in oil prices have? Significant implications include: an inflationary trend because of higher food prices and increasing costs of distribution of goods; the necessity of a relatively rapid transport revolution influencing technologies used in all transport sectors; a need to substitute existing forms of road repair and maintenance with sustainable means of achieving the same objectives. Given these impacts, engaging the public in an early awareness of adjustments they may have to make is highly desirable. Thanet District Council needs to lead on this rather than looking for jobs in what is rapidly becoming the past history of transport.
NEW RESEARCH SHOWS AVIATION AND SHIPPING POLLUTION WORSE THAN EXPECTED
Recent research shows the effects of aviation[4] and shipping[5] pollution to be considerably worse than previous expectations. This has major implications for the expansion of airports and ports in Kent.
Airport expansion in Kent could be halted by its climate impacts alone. New research shows that aviation emissions are far more damaging than previously thought. With Manston and Lydd both showing major financial losses recently,[6] this provides another reason to accept Kent Green Party’s argument that these sites should be used as all-weather leisure centres to support our expanding domestic tourism in Kent and Medway.
Even more startling is research showing up to 39,000 people in the European Union are dying prematurely each year as a result of pollution from shipping. Since all of Kent’s ports, but particularly Dover, are trying to expand, this pollution now becomes more important as a climate change and a public health issue. Both aviation expansion and Port expansion generate more traffic movements so we need to consider if we really want public money used on road maintenance, or lorry parks or - even worse – new road building when the aviation and shipping industries need to cut their emissions radically and rapidly.
LOCAL FOOD NOT AIR FREIGHTED FRUIT AND VEG
Food prices are rising rapidly, due to more extreme weather events associated with climate change, and because the price of oil is rising once again as some states (notably India and China) shrug off recession. Since we are now roughly at the peak of oil production,[7] and the effects of climate change are likely to worsen until effective policies are followed, it is very probable that air freighted foods will become considerably more expensive. The benefits of increasing local production for a County like Kent are obvious.[8] Kent Green Party is supporting a phase out of air freighted fruit and vegetables and more local production, as in places like Thanet – particularly to meet local needs.
Clearly, stopping long-distance air freighting of foodstuffs is necessary as oil becomes ever more expensive. Isn’t this what Thanet Earth is about? Isn’t this what the polytunnels that cover parts of West Kent are about? However, this is no simple matter: first, these initiatives may have transport and environmental impacts here and impact upon the relationships of dependence which have been created in countries much poorer than our own, including many in Africa.[9] Since about 17% of UK carbon emissions are from growing, distributing and preparing food, we cannot simply ignore these emissions when cutting back on greenhouse gases. A kilo of Kent apples generates about 120g of carbon dioxide in its travel to a home in Kent. By comparison, a kilo of apples air freighted from New Zealand would generate about 300g. Buying organic and buying locally will help keep emissions down, even more so if you grow food in your own garden.
Kent Green Party is calling upon supermarkets, which are claiming policies on climate change, to phase out air freighted foodstuffs and to do so in a manner which helps producers in poorer countries to adapt. Clearly, this means more Kent and UK produced food in our supermarkets.
THANET DISTRICT COUNCIL AND ASSOCIATED DOCUMENTATION ON NIGHT FLIGHTS
It is emphatically not the job of Thanet District Council to advocate or support any type of economic activity in the name of more jobs at any price. Decades of doing this in Thanet have failed to prevent the area retaining low incomes, one of the highest rates of empty shops in the UK and generally higher unemployment than the Kent average. It is abundantly clear that Thanet needs entirely different and varied employment strategies to become more self-sustaining and more resilient against external shocks. This has never been more important than at a time when a return to Thatcherite policies threatens a large boost in UK unemployment whilst taxes for the wealthy remain low, tax havens remain open and HM Customs and Revenue managed not to collect £42 bn in taxes known to be due , last year. We have suggested a variety of methods which might help to change this situation, including a wiser use of the Manston site.
TDC’s propose Night Time Flying Policy deliberately understates the impact of noise on public health and offers an over generous time period during the night when night flights might take place. Given the unique characteristic of Thanet, that it has all of its urban area on its periphery at the coast, it is clear that protecting the public from aircraft noise – day and night – has to be a TDC priority. Given the increasing number of people in the UK who work at night, daytime noise levels from Manston should not be ignored. Kent Green Party therefore proposes a complete block on night flights except for emergency landings. We also wish to see a new economic Masterplan for the Manston site, including the phasing out of aviation as a major use other than for aircraft repair or emergency landing facilities. We think the site should be looked at for leisure uses, including the possibility of a major Park perhaps linked into existing walking and cycling routes and using neighbouring land if feasible. This is consistent with the Government’s stated aim of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, whilst continuing the search for new employment for Thanet.
The TDC Night Flights policy takes no account of Peak Oil (see above) or the strength and severity of recession, not the Government’s tendency to reinforce recession through making 600,000 public sector workers unemployed up to 2014. (This would have the effect of reducing the spending of these workers in the private sector, probably leading to 600,000 private sector job losses in sectors such as retail, tourism, home repair and construction, and in financial services.
We suggest that any decibel level set for the Airport should consider day and night noise impacts, and reflect the actual health and vulnerabilities of people living in the whole of affected area – meaning all those areas of Thanet which might experience aircraft flying over them at less than 500 feet at any point in the year. This is consistent with the idea of a Health Impact Assessment for the affected area, which should be carried out by the Airport at its expense and with peer review of the consultants it uses. This should either take place before any night flights are permitted, or should be considered as a permanent block on night flights if the Airport declines to carry out such a study. Kent Green Party reiterates that it sees no pressing reason for any regular night flights.
The existing consultants reports do not take health seriously as a factor which should be considered with regard to night flights. It would seem that their brief was either insufficiently broad, or tailored to minimise the impacts of increased aircraft noise.
Future housing expansion – planned or possible – in areas under the complete ‘noise footprint’ of Manston are not considered in the documents linked to this consultation. This is unacceptable.
We note the legitimate concern of people in Herne Bay concerning Night Flights at Manston.[10] We wonder to what extent TDC will ensure that people outside Thanet who may already be experiencing noise from Manston Airport may get a chance to comment upon the proposals for increasing night flights.
[2] Noise and WHO: http://www.who.int/
[3] S. Cairns and C. Newson – Predict and Decide: aviation, climate change and UK policy Environmental Change Institute, Oxford University, 2006; European Federation for Transport and Environment & Climate Action Network Europe – Clearing the Air: the myth and reality of aviation and climate change, 2006.
[4] SEE: http://www.
[5] SEE: http://www.
[7] See the website of the Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Caroline Lucas and Andy Jones – Fuelling a food crisis: the impact of peak oil on food security . At: www.carolinelucasmep.org.uk
SEE: Caroline Lucas MEP and Andy Jones – Local Food: benefits and opportunities at www.carolinelucasmep.org.uk
[8] Govt stats on benefits and carbon costs of horticultural trade with Africa: http://statistics.defra.gov.
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