PRESENT: Councillors John Bowden (Chairman), Malcolm Beer and David Hilton.

Officers: Louisa Dean (Communications and Marketing Manager), Craig Miller (Community Protection & Enforcement Service Lead), Chris Nash (Team Leader - Environmental Protection) and Shilpa Manek (Clerk).

1. WELCOME

The Chairman welcomed everyone to the Forum.

The Chairman informed the Forum that the meeting would be audio recorded and of fire drill procedures.

2. APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Dudley and Lenton and Jamie Jamieson.

3. DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

There were no declarations of interest.

4. MINUTES

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That the minutes of the meeting of the Forum held on 8 June 2015 be approved.

5. MATTERS ARISING

Chris Nash, Team Leader, Environmental Protection, informed the Forum that the nearest measuring station to Oakley Green was on Galley Road, Longmead and it had one of the lowest readings of 21. The Forum found this reassuring.

6. RESPONSE TO GOVERNMENT RE: AIRPORTS COMMISSION RECOMMENDATION

Chris Nash, Team Leader, Environmental Protection, informed the Forum that a recommendation had been put forward on 1 July 2015 and a decision would be made by the end of the year.

The headline objections that were highlighted included:

Ban of scheduled night flights.
Legal binding on noise envelope.
Guaranteed times of respite.
Provision of the £1 billion noise reduction fund and the access needs.
Establish 50% mode of shift of public transport.
Seeking approval from lead member and Leader.

Chris Nash continued to explain that once approved, it would be sent to all 2M authorities to add their signatures to add further weight before sending to the Secretary of State.

Councillor Beer gave a brief background on the authorities that are members of 2M. He explained how many council’s had joined and how many constituents.

Councillor Hilton asked if the council dialogue was going to be accepted by other local authorities. Officers explained that there was very positive dialogue with other local authorities except Slough, who was supporting the airport commission decision. The borough has very good relationships with all local authorities that are part of 2M.

The next step was to draft the response with input from the Aviation Forum and send to the Lead member and the Leader for approval and then approach the other local authorities for signatures and then send on to the Secretary of State.

Councillor Beer highlighted that that LAANC comments would definitely be considered when writing our response.

Other points discussed:

Would the response state our objection? Yes, this would be clearly stated.
Getting public on board to raise the profile further and organising meeting to inform constituents, Craig Miller advised that this was already in hand and discussion were taking place with communications team. He advised that an action plan was being developed and would be presented to the next Aviation Forum.

Councillor Hilton advised the Forum that a leaflet had already been developed and was to be distributed through letterboxes across the borough; 1.6 million leaflets had been prepared. Councillor Hilton had contributed £100 to the campaign and was going to write to the Leader to see if the council could also contribute to the campaign. Councillor Hilton advised that a rally had been organised for 10 October. He encouraged everyone to spread the word. Craig Miller advised the Forum that the council was supporting the leaflet and are referencing it.

The Chair advised that the council was setting aside funds to contribute to any campaign that was taking place.

7. CRANFORD AGREEMENT - UPDATE

Chris Nash, Team Leader, Environmental Protection, informed the Forum that further to the boroughs representation, the Secretary of State was taking his time to respond. Everyone was working to a 9 November 2015 deadline. An update will be given at the next meeting.

8. AIRSPACE CHANGE PROCESS

Councillor Hilton gave a verbal update on the following three points:

Heathrow Noise Forum
o Track not in line with what Webtrack have advertised.
o NRL – work has started, the results will be available in two months.
o Members of the Forum have requested feedback at the same time as the Heathrow outcome.
o Putting gates across the flight paths – looking at this afterwards as it will take longer.
Departure trials – ended November 2014
o Complaints.
o Impacts of the trials.
o Conclusions of the trials.
Airspace Change Process
o Achieved by 2017.
o Two meetings planned, 7 and 14 September.
o We support the views of the consultation of 2014 that noise should be prioritised.

The Chairman opened the floor for questions from the public. Some of the points raised included:

NRL work was funded by Heathrow.

Paul Jennings, Oakley Green and Fifield residents association, went through some technical points on altitudes above and under 7000 feet and glide scopes of 3.2 and how they don’t make much of a difference.
The “wide noise app” and that it could be used to give an idea of noise levels.
Councillor Dr Lilly Evans raised points on the health implications at peak events and wanted to know what was in place. Levels at peak events do not fall into the dangerous category.
Anything in the sky, CAA (Civil Aviation Authority) would be responsible and anything on the ground, in the borough, the borough would be responsible.
BAA had many mobile monitors but finding a secure location for them was proving to be difficult. Councillor Beer suggested it was worth asking what happened to the programme for these.
NATS owned 49% by the airline industry, so could be biased.
Craig Miller explained that there were two live noise monitoring units in the borough to gather evidential base to any comments that we would make. They were placed in Central Windsor and Old Windsor. Both units had gone live on the week commencing 17 August 2015. These would be advertised once they were more established.

9. PARTNERSHIP BODIES

HAAC – Last meeting very joyous about the Davies Commission report.
LAANC – Should there be a challenge to the Davies Commission – it would be less expensive to challenge now. When in Parliament, it would be very expensive to mount a legal review. There was discussion on the 3.2 glide slope and that only British Airways was participating.

10. DATES OF FUTURE MEETINGS

The Forum noted the following dates for the future meetings of the Aviation Forum:

9 November 2015
16 February 2016
10 May 2016

MEETING

The Chairman thanked everyone for attending the Aviation Forum and closed the meeting. The meeting, which began at 7pm ended at 8.45pm.