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Flight path over Liphook centre? Horrifying! - Mary W (25th Aug 2016 - 23:57:33) EHDC Leader concerned by TAG Farnborough plans EHDC communications Wednesday 24 August 2016 Flight path proposals “a blight on East Hampshire” With TAG Farnborough airport consulting again on proposals for airspace changes in the skies above East Hampshire and West Sussex, Leader of East Hampshire District Council (EHDC), Councillor Ferris Cowper, has called the proposals “a blight on East Hampshire’s countryside, residents and businesses”. The area covered by the new consultation (which runs until Wednesday 5 October) includes the majority of Liphook village centre as well as Milland, Midhurst, West Dean and other parishes just over the border in West Sussex that are popular with residents. According to the TAG Farnborough proposals, flights will pass over Liphook at between 5,000 and 4,000 feet on their way to final approach into the airport. At this altitude, the noise could be up to 61 decibels (the equivalent of conversational speech from one metre away). TAG Farnborough forecast that by 2019 there will be as many as 7,200 flights following this path each year (an average of 19 per day). Councillor Cowper said: “Imagine sitting for a quiet lunch with friends in the garden of one of East Hampshire’s beautiful rural pubs and having to stop mid-conversation while a flight goes overhead. That’s not what I would want, and it’s not what I think local residents want. “If these proposals are approved, they could affect tourism in the South Downs National Park and damage the economy of East Hampshire and neighbouring authorities. They could also have a devastating effect on general aviation and gliding locally. “EHDC will be responding to this consultation in the strongest terms as we did for the original consultation and I will continue to fight for the interests of local residents and businesses. “I urge anyone who lives in or visits the proposed area to make their feelings known to TAG Farnborough before 5 October.” To find out more about the consultation, go to consultation.tagfarnborough.com

Re: Flight path over Liphook centre? Horrifying! - tony (26th Aug 2016 - 10:33:47) Hi Mary, I appreciate you bringing this to people's attention as I really believe it's important we know this sort of thing and it gives people a chance to have their say, but I think the title 'horrifying' is a little overblown even in politic speak! It's clear they have avoided the bigger (hence more influential) towns of Petersfield and Haslemere so I doubt they're going to change. It also it appears to be an incoming flight path, so less noise and pollution than you'd get on take off, fortunately. Also since the airfield at Farnborough is very well established (it's not like they're building a new runway), there's surely not too much we can complain about. In the great scheme of things I've never found the planes overhead too bad here, all things compared. In fact I would guess a new runway at Gatwick could be more likely to cause a knock on effect here with more and larger aircraft being directed our way, wait and see (notice May has delayed an announcement indefinitely although Cameron was about to award it to Heathrow above her own constituency, so expect (yet again) another slow, politically motivated reevaluation worthy of an episode of Yes Minister!). The fact we already have a flightpath for Farnborough may even be a blessing in that regard Whilst all pollution is detrimental to our fantastic area round here, I'd personally prefer our councillors got angry about the more insiduous but less obvious pollution from all the new housing estates they're eagerly building, something they might even have more influence over!

Re: Flight path over Liphook centre? Horrifying! - JP (26th Aug 2016 - 11:36:15) Farnborough only has short runways and mainly light aircraft operate from there (Learjets etc) so I doubt if it will have the massive impact you mention. We are not talking about 777s or other major planes. The Chinooks from Odiham make far more noise as they fly very low over this area.

Re: Flight path over Liphook centre? Horrifying! - liz (26th Aug 2016 - 12:57:32) How does this differ from the current situation? We already get planes to/from Farnborough overhead Liphook.

Re: Flight path over Liphook centre? Horrifying! - Keith (26th Aug 2016 - 13:40:36) The key difference to the current situation is that the planes will be flying 1000ft lower than they do now (so instead of 4,500 feet they will be at 3,500 feet). Farnborough also has ambitions to substantially increase their annual number of flights. I'm not quite sure where the idea came from that Farnborough only has a short runway. In the days when Concorde was airborne, Farnborough was the only airport in the South East outside of Heathrow which had a runway long enough for it to land and take off. Anyone who has been to the Farnborough air show in recent years will have seen the Airbus A380 (currently the world's largest passenger aircraft in commercial service), take off and land with plenty of runway to spare, so the runway itself is not the limiter on aircraft size, more that the current passenger terminal facilities would struggle to cope with the passenger numbers from a large plane.

Re: Flight path over Liphook centre? Horrifying! - Jonathan (26th Aug 2016 - 19:38:22) I doubt they will be flying lower than now, just that they would have the protection of controlled airspace which they don't necessarily have now. With them being in controlled airspace for longer they would likely take a more direct routing (not having to avoid lighter aircraft outside controlled airspace as now) therefore increasing safety, decreasing any chance of a collision and possibly shortening the duration of any noise. I doubt anyone will notice any difference.

Re: Flight path over Liphook centre? Horrifying! - Paul (26th Aug 2016 - 21:29:11) Thanks for flagging this. I guess the point behind this is that we are experiencing a slow erosion of airspace over Liphook. It was only last year that TAG Farnborough completed it's last consultation to permit more flights at lower altitude passing overhead Liphook. The current aim is to increase traffic at a lower altitude again. Presumably there could be further changes in the future with the risk that we wake up too late to the problem. II shall be looking forward to the consultation, and will be making clear that I don't support any further changes.

Re: Flight path over Liphook centre? Horrifying! - Jonathan (26th Aug 2016 - 22:25:09) In fact at initial viewing of this revision, it is better for Liphook than the previous proposal and consultation as the airspace had a higher base level over Liphook, therefore traffic will be higher than if the original was implemented.

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