Surrey Live - Emily Coady-Stemp
The campaigner said it is 'a second runway by the back door'
Gatwick Airport's hopes of bringing its northern runway into regular use amount to a "second runway by the back door" according to one campaigner. A public consultation is currently running on the plans, first announced in 2018, which would see the northern runway brought into regular use for smaller departing aeroplanes alongside the main runway.
Sally Pavey, chair of Campaign Against Gatwick Noise and Expansion (CAGNE) said the northern runway can't be used alongside the main one as it currently is. She said significant work would need to be done to relocate it, saying it is currently used as an emergency and taxiing runway and is too close to the main one.
Along with concerns about pressure on roads and the accessibility via public transport of the airport, as well as the impact of the aviation industry more widely, she described proposals for Gatwick as "a cocktail of negatives".
