Policy paper

Heathrow north-west runway noise explanatory briefing

Published 21 June 2018

What does the Airports National Policy Statement say?

The proposed Airports National Policy Statement (NPS) is clear that Heathrow expansion will not go ahead without a comprehensive package of mitigations to tackle the impacts of aircraft noise.

The Noise Policy Statement for England, which sets out the government’s overarching policy on noise, is clear that noise should not be considered in isolation, but rather on a project-by-project basis and taking into account the economic and social benefits of the project. Having considered environmental, economic and social factors, the Airports NPS sets out a clear requirement to limit and, where possible, reduce the noise impacts of aircraft compared to the 2013 baseline assessed by the Airports Commission. This sets a minimum standard that the relevant package of mitigations must deliver. In order to do so, the Airports NPS specifies mitigations that the applicant should deliver to protect local communities:

• noise performance targets tailored to local priorities
• providing people near the airport with predictable periods of respite from aircraft noise through runway alternation
• a 6 and a half hour ban on scheduled night flights between the hours of 23:00 and 07:00, subject to consultation with local communties and relevant stakeholders in line with the International Civil Aviation Organisation’s balanced approach to noise management. Outside the hours of a ban, the government also expects the applicant to make particular efforts to incentivise the use of the quietest aircraft at night

For those noise impacts that cannot be mitigated, the applicant must at least meet their public commitments relating to providing noise insulation for schools, community buildings and residential properties most impacted by noise.

The details of mitigation measures — such as the precise timing of the night flight ban - will be determined at a later stage in the planning process in consultation with local communities and relevant stakeholders. This is so that an applicant can properly consult with and consider impacts on different communities as well as different stakeholder groups in arriving at a balanced solution.

The Independent Commission on Civil Aviation Noise (ICCAN), which the government is currently setting up, will establish best practice in noise mitigation which airports will be expected to follow.

In developing the overall noise mitigation package, the airport will need to follow the International Civil Aviation Organisation’s balanced approach to noise management.

What would the applicant need to do as part of its application for development consent?

Any applicant for development consent will need to undertake a comprehensive assessment of the noise impacts of the project as part of its environmental statement. The applicant must set out details of the existing noise environment, how noise will change, and measures to mitigate the effects of noise. The development consent application must include a detailed explanation of how the proposed noise mitigations will deliver against the NPS requirement to limit and reduce the impact of aircraft noise. In assessing aircraft noise, an applicant must take into account the noise assessment principles set out in the government’s new policy on airspace (PDF, 2MB).

The applicant must develop the details of its proposed noise mitigation package in partnership with local communities and other relevant stakeholders. The details are expected to include the timings of any scheduled night flight ban and any further respite at night, the operation of any runway alternation scheme and the duration of daytime respite periods. The noise mitigation package developed through this joint process will then be subject to formal consultation with local communities, airlines and other interested parties.

Following consultation, the applicant must finalise the details of the noise mitigation package that will be included in its application for development consent, which the examining authority would assess. These proposals will form a key part of the examination and decision making on the development consent application.

Airspace change process

Precise flightpaths for the Heathrow north-west runway scheme will be defined through the Civil Aviation Authority’s (CAA’s) airspace change process, which is separate to the planning process. The design of new flightpaths is highly technical and can take several years. The CAA’s airspace change process, which was made more rigorous from 2 January 2018, requires airports to undertake extensive consultation with communities. It is through this regulatory process that communities will see and have the opportunity to comment on the detailed proposals for new flightpaths that the applicant would put forward.

Heathrow Airport Limited has recently concluded a consultation on principles for airspace design. The airport has indicated that this will be followed by 2 additional stages of consultation, the first of which is expected to be undertaken alongside the statutory development consent consultation. A consultation on flightpath options is then expected by 2021.

Enforcement

The details of any monitoring and enforcement regime will be determined through the planning process, in consultation with local communities and relevant stakeholders.

The mitigations required by a designated Airports NPS would not be optional. A decision would not be made granting development consent unless the mitigations described in the application for development consent were in accordance with the policy in the NPS.

Mitigations would be imposed on the applicant as legally enforceable planning requirements and planning obligations, as appropriate. For example, if, as a condition of development consent there was a limit on the area of a noise contour and the airport breached this, then it could be required to introduce additional noise restrictions to ensure that such limits would not be breached in the future.

Any breach of a planning requirement without reasonable excuse would be a criminal offence, and there are wide-ranging powers for the relevant planning authority to investigate and intervene should this occur. This includes criminal proceedings, fines or even court injunctions that limit the airport’s operations or prevent runway use in order to stop or restrain a breach.