Review of existing Section 106 Agreement - Thanet District Council

In respect of noise mitigation measures, there are currently three airportsdesignated under Section 80 of Civil Aviation Act 1982 for the purposes ofSection 78 of that Act – Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted. Section 78empowers the Secretary of State to regulate noise and vibration connectedwith aircraft taking off or landing at these “designated airports”. The origins ofthis arrangement date back to the 1960’s, when these airports were part of thenational British Airports Authority, where at that time these provided thepredominant proportion of air services from the entire UK. Development andmanagement of noise monitoring and noise insulation compensation schemeswere carried by the then Department of Transport, not the airports operator.The introduction of common arrangements introduced at the designatedairports in the early 1990’s resulted in the same system of aircraftclassification for aircraft at any of these airports, with restrictions on commonrules, including the same hours of restrictions, and the same rules fordispensations, early arrivals and administration. The only difference is thatmovement and night quotas are set separately at each airport, to reflectspecific market differences in the air services operated.At all other UK airports – “non-designated” in Section 78 and 80 noiselegislation terms – the impact of noise can only be controlled by operationalrestrictions imposed by the planning system and the goodwill of the airportoperators. The airline industry itself is protected from any legal action inrespect of nuisance by virtue of the Air Navigation Order 1920.However, in practice, the control of noise at other airports has been achievedby means of the planning process. In particular, by using the custom andpractice of procedures and standards at the Designated Airports asbenchmarks to judge the value and effectiveness of operational controls,facilities and procedures aimed at mitigating environmental and noise impact.The standards and principles set for the Designated Airports, and Governmentactions to regulate these for environmental objectives, has set the frameworkfor the introduction of comparable measures at other UK airports. The keyissue for consideration is the need to examine any proposed measure derivedfrom the examples at Designated Airports in context of that airport’s actuallevel of activity, existing or planned, and the commercial and investmentresources that are realistically likely to be available to implement anymeasure.Licensed airports have the power, under Section 38 of the 1982 Act to fix theircharges in relation to aircraft noise, or to the inconvenience resulting fromsuch noise, including departures from compliance to noise routingrequirements in the vicinity of the airport.Section 35 of the 1982 Act originally set up formal Consultative Committeesfor Heathrow and Gatwick. Many other airports subsequently set upconsultative committees to parallel the requirements of Section 35 of the Act,although only those airports actually designated by the Secretary of State forTransport are obliged to provide such facilities. With the number of otherairports that operated Committees of some form on a “goodwill basis”,revisions to the process were made in 1987. The DfT Guidance Note forEU00142:FINAL REPORT PAGE 4