Leeds Bradford Airport expansion plan will bring more noise pollution and traffic while the economic argument is weak too - YEP letters
and live on Freeview channel 276
Adam Schofield, Cookridge
Noise seriously harms human health and interferes with people’s lives. The World Health Organisation is recommending far lower thresholds for the avoidance of adverse health impacts from aircraft noise. Twice the flights mean twice the noise.
When people decided to live in the vicinity of the airport they would not have bargained on this. The expansion also means that noise pollution will impact a wider area and people not previously affected now would be. Not everyone has the luxury of deciding where to live – personal circumstances often dictate where people live, so it’s not as simple as saying “don’t live here if you don’t like it”.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdThe economic case is weak too. The bulk of traffic at LBA is low-cost airlines taking people and money out of the region. Automation is reducing the number of staff needed to run an airport, leaving low paid, typically zero-hour, work. The airport is Australian-owned, meaning the profits are not reinvested in our economy. Instead of spending money on polluting industries such as this, we should be investing in low carbon transport and infrastructure to reinvigorate the economy post-Covid-19 and address the climate emergency. This expansion is unnecessary and unsustainable; I urge people to oppose it.