Non-Subscriber Extract
Gatwick Airport claims a ground-breaking sustainable development strategy
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| 30 May 2001 |
ACCOMMODATING EXTRA PASSENGERS while managing the growth of an airport in agreement with its neighbours is a complex and sensitive issue. For BAA's London airports - Heathrow, Stansted and Gatwick - growth is being by far outstripped by demand; by 2011, 140 million people are forecast to be travelling through these airports.
Gatwick is the UK's second busiest airport and the sixth largest in the world. It currently handles around 32 million passengers a year with this figure expected to rise to around 40 million by 2008. With its responsibility to increase its capacity to meet rising demand with the support of the local community in mind, the airport has produced a sustainable development strategy.
The strategy outlines how Gatwick should develop during the next 10 years as a one runway, two terminal airport and is the result of three years of close consultation with local authorities and communities. Growth has to sit comfortably alongside the welfare and prosperity of the local community. This is underpinned by more than 150 commitments which include detailed proposals for managing noise, cutting down waste and energy use, landscaping and developing its Community Trust Fund. A tri-partite legal agreement with the Crawley town and West Sussex county council holds Gatwick to 40 legally binding obligations which are designed to ensure that while the airport continues to bring economic benefit to the region, it does not cause significant detrimental impact to its neighbours and surrounding environment.
The airport used international consultancy Environmental Resources Management (ERM) to put together the sustainable development agenda embracing social, economic and environmental issues. ERM project director Simon Hewitt says, "We were involved to ensure that the growth in airport capacity was achieved with minimum impact on nearby communities. Now we're working on component projects such as investigating the potential of a bund to screen residents from some of the new developments in the airport." With the ink barely dry on the agreement, the work has started this year.
With regard to air noise Gatwick is working with airlines to encourage them to operate the quietest types of aircraft. Virgin Atlantic is replacing five 747-200s with the 747-400s and other airlines are following suit in phasing out older, noisier aircraft and replacing them with quieter models.
The aim is to reduce the size of the area affected by noise - known as the daytime 16 hour 57db Leq contour - to meet a forecast for 2008 which shows that the size of the contour could be 50% smaller than in 1996.
The airport is developing a ground run pen to protect local communities from the noise of aircraft engine testing, and will consider building more noise barriers such as earth bunds around the edge of the airfield.
New building work during the next 5-10 years is likely to include enhancements to the international departure lounges, check-in areas, baggage facilities and construction of piers and satellites. The visual impact of the developments will be influenced by a natural landscaping programme.
The local transport infrastructure will be boosted by a £4 million (US$6m) investment in FastWay, a high quality public transport system, which is part of a £10 million investment pledge by BAA Gatwick to reduce road traffic growth around the airport.
Gatwick provides direct employment for around 30,000 people, generating aggregate weekly earnings of approximately £10 million. A further 15,000 jobs in the local community are dependent on the airport. It is estimated that 4,000 additional jobs will be created by 2008. BAA Gatwick's managing director Janis Kong says the strategy is a benchmark of how big business can work closely with its local community for mutual benefit. "We want Gatwick to grow with the support and trust of our neighbours - that's why we've developed strategies which reflect not only concepts for developing the airport but also deal with the environmental issues that we know cause most concern."