Night flight campaigners take fight to Europe

A fresh row over Heathrow's night flights erupted today.

Residents opposed to the flights are to ask the European Commission to ban them.

They claim Government officials have failed to analyse the economic benefits of running flights throughout the night.

This puts them in breach of EC guidelines, residents' group ClearSkies said today.

John Stewart, the chairman of ClearSkies, said: "There has been no work at all done to measure the economic impact of banning night flights.

"We believe that the impact would be negligible but the Government seems unwilling to do that analysis."

The organisation now hopes to appeal to the European Commission to have the flights banned.

The public consultation period on the Government's latest plans, which could see the number of night flights increased, was due to end today.

But according to the Department of Transport, actual and final plans will not be announced until late next year.

"These recommendations will run for five years but there is a second public consultation period that will begin early next year," said a spokeswoman.

"Part of that will involve asking the airlines about the benefits but no independent study has yet been carried out."

It is believed plans to increase the number of flights have been discussed along with ways to use quieter aircraft in order not to break noise limits.

ClearSkies said today it expects a massive response to the consultation: "We think there will be more than 10,000 replies, so there is a real chance the Department of Transport will actually listen.

"I think this has also become a real hot political issue, so we expect a lot of further action if it is decided to increase the number of flights.

"There is already talk of launching a national campaign as we have had so many letters of support from people living near other airports.

"They feel they have been forgotten, and I think we all agree that a complete ban on night flights is the only answer to the problems these flights cause.

"They are ruining the lives of our members."

ClearSkies claims that the Government has failed to observe a key EC directive that requires member states to carry out a full assessment of the situation before making major decisions on environmental issues.

Mr Stewart claims no work has been done to measure the economic impact of banning night flights.

He also claims that the flights exceed the night- time noise limits recommended by the World Health Organisation.

The WHO limits, which the Government has signed up to, are 45 decibels.

That would rule out all current night flights at Heathrow, according to an Evening Standard investigation carried out earlier this year.