----------
> From: Paul de Clerck <Paul.de.Clerck@milieudefensie.nl>
> To: The right price for air travel campaign <airtax@milieudefensie.nl>;
The right price for air travel campaign <airtax@milieudefensie.nl>
> Subject: (Fwd) Guardian article on night flight case
> Date: Thursday, 30 March 2000 4:18
>
>
> To: Organisations and persons interested in aviation issues
> Re: Articles on aviation and environment issues
> Date: March 2000
> From: Paul de Clerck and Ilse Chang
>
>
> Dear sir/madam
>
> Please find below an article from the Guardian about a courtcase at
> the European Court of Justice on nightflights around Heatrow
> Airport.
>
> Yours,
>
>
> Paul de Clerck
> On behalf of FoE Europe
>
>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------
>
> Justify night flights, court orders
>
> by Paul Brown-Environment Correspondent
> The Guardian
> March 13 2000
>
> Night flights at Heathrow may infringe the right to a decent home
> life of families that live in the flight path, according to the court of
> human rights in Strasbourg.
>
> In a test case on aircraft noise the court has ordered the
> government to justify subjecting 1m people in London to
> unacceptable nighttime noise.
> Eight residents near Heathrow have spent seven years fighting the
> decision of the government to allow 16 night flights between 4 am
> and 6 am and unrestricted flights between 6 am and 7am.
>
> Judges at Strasbourg have accepted the case and called on the
> government to account for itself. So far the government has failed to
> put up a defence- partly because the only one that appears to be
> open to it in law is that night flights are vital to the national
> economy.
>
> Lawyer Susan Ring, who with her partner, Richard Buxton, is
> representing the residents, said the human rights court had
> accepted that under article 8 of the European convention night
> flights might infringe the right to enjoyment of your home. The case
> had already gone through judicial reviews in England and to the
> House of Lords.
>
> One high court judge has described the government's case as
> "devious and deeply unattractive".
> Ms Ring added: "That was even before the government's conduct
> was shown by evidence to have been dishonest: saying one thing
> to residents and to the courts, and another thing to the terminal 5
> public inquiry."
>
> The government had introduced night flights in 19993 to further the
> commercial interests of the airlines having earlier claimed it was
> going to reduce noise.
>
> Under English law "night " is from 11:30 pm to 7am but the
> government lopped an hour off to allow unrestricted flights after 6am.
>
> Phillipa Edmunds lives less than a mile form the end of the runway
> and is one of eight people who have given statements to the
> Strasbourg judges. She has two children Lucy, eight and Eve, six,
> who are woken up by jets. "Sleep depravation is used as a form of
> torture. That is what happens when these jumbo jets start arriving
> at 4am and keep on coming. It is a human rights issue, the right to
> a decent night's sleep. We have had the house double-glazed,
> which helps but it is not enough. We wear earplugs, and cannot
> open the windows. It affects our moods and our productivity at
> work."
>
> John Cavalla, a retired research scientist lived for 42 years close to
> Heathrow under the flightpath at Osterley, west London, but moved
> because he could no longer stand the night flights.
> "To start with there were none and then it just got worse and
> worse. They started about 4am and got more and more frequent.
> Between 6am and 7am they came every 90 seconds. In the end it
> just drives you crazy. We just had to get out."
>
> Ms Ring said that because of the night flights the area close to
> Heathrow has become a ghetto of poor housing. "Anyone with
> enough money or a decent job moves out leaving those in low paid
> jobs behind. Only people who cannot afford to go anywhere else
> live under the night time flight path.
>
>
> **************************************************************
> This message was sent by:
> Paul de Clerck
> Friends of the Earth Netherlands
> Campaign Coordinator 'The Right Price for Air Travel' and 'Earth Alarm'
>
> PO Box 19199, 1000 GD Amsterdam, The Netherlands
> Phone: 31-20-5507300, Fax: 31-20-5507310
> Email: paul@milieudefensie.nl
> Website: www.milieudefensie.nl/airtravel and
www.milieudefensie.nl/earthalarm
> **************************************************************
This page is maintained by
The Rivermouth Action Group Inc
as a community service.