|
Going to Europe for a good night's sleep The European Court of Human Rights may seem like an unlikely place to take a complaint about noisy neighbours, but that's how it's turned out for the eight residents who want the UK government to curtail night flights at Heathrow airport. The dispute goes back to 1993, but prospects of success took a giant step forward in the past week, as funds became available to instruct David Anderson QC to represent the eight complainants in the Strasbourg court. John Prescott had nothing to do with the original dispute, but it is his Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR) which is defending the case. Susan
Ring, the Richmond-based environmental lawyer who represents the complainants,
says: "Although the current government inherited this situation
from the Tories, the fact is that successive Labour ministers have failed
to get a grip on the issue. Glenda Jackson refused to ban night flights,
and now Chris Mullin has done the same." Ms Ring says that civil
servants at the DETR are wedded to night flights and have been advising
ministers accrdingly, despite public opposition. The hearing in Strasbourg will take place on May 16th. The eight residents who are bringing the case have been assembled as a representative sample of the victims of air traffic noise. Campaigners say that as many as 700,000 residents of the Thames Valley and southwest London are, to a greater or lesser extent, affected by aircraft noise.
|
"Labour
may have inherited the problem, but their ministers have failed to get
a grip on it." "devious and deeply unattractive"..."a farrago of equivocation." - judge's description of the UK government's submission on aircraft noise, 1995 For
full details on the background to the case, follow the link to website
for the Heathrow
Association for the Control of Aircraft Noise which includes
their documented evidence relating to the case. If you want to support
the case financially, send a cheque made out to HACAN, to P O Box 339,
Richmond Surrey TW9 4SS, and write "ECHR fund" on the back. |
