8/2/2007

Letters

I do not want a huge airport on my doorstep

Are we all so naïve that we didn’t realise that TAG would increase the number of flights through Farnborough at the earliest opportunity? TAG is in business to make money and increase its profits — running an airfield is an expensive business, we expect wages that keep up with the cost of living and pay our huge mortgages. TAG as an employer is no different to any other.

I’m not defending them — the last thing I want is a huge airport on my doorstep that expands at every opportunity. Glen Morrison is quite right when he states that “noise is noise” (News , January 31). But, my goodness, what levels of noise and pollution do we endure in this part of the country? Walk out of your front door and what greets you? Traffic, aircraft, mobile phones. Go down to Tesco and it can sometimes be difficult to have a conversation.

Has TAG done its research into the long-term effects of increased pollution? Is it taking notice of the concerns about aircraft emissions and climate change?

Is it aware of the level of increase in asthma and related respiratory diseases in children and can it say for certain that environmental pollution doesn’t play a part in this?

Years ago, when my children were small, we had the experience of Concorde flying over our house. I well remember how the doors and windows rattled and shook and how frightened my children were.

We lived as we still do, in Aldershot, not Farnborough, so we were also affected by aircraft noise, as we would be if flying at Farnborough increased.

So please, Rushmoor Council, stick to your guns and don’t allow the increase to happen.

Surely the Very Important People that want to fly into Farnborough can ‘let the train take the strain’ and like the rest of us common mortals stand in a queue for a ticket (or, of course, get their secretaries to do it for them).

Joyce Winstone
York Crescent
Aldershot

First printed in: Aldershot News and Mail