Edward Garnier

Conservative Party | Harborough

Hard Copy to Brian Conway posted tonight from Commons

Brian Conway Esq MCIPR

Head of Government and Industry Affairs

Regional Airports Division

Nottingham East Midlands Airport

Castle Donington

Derby DE74 2SA

6 September 2006

Dear Brian

Thank you and your colleagues for taking the time to show me and Steve Charlish the control tower and the radar equipment and for the briefings from Jon Cox and Neil Robinson on 23 August before I went to Scotland for the week. I am sorry that I was a little late in arriving (my fault entirely) and that I did not have my passport with me in Leicestershire but trust that you were not too inconvenienced by that.

I have now returned to see the subsequent email correspondence passing between Penny Coates, you and Steve Charlish and before we lose sight of the central issue, namely the number, speed and noise of the aircraft passing over my constituency to the annoyance of my constituents and detriment of their quality of life and reasonable enjoyment of their properties, I thought I should let you know what my recollection of the discussion in the radar viewing room was.

It is clear that Aviation Minister Karen Buck’s letter to me of 10 October 2005 stated that “The ntms system does not record speed” and “the system does not record it [speed information] so it cannot be referred to at a later date.” On a literal reading of those words it is true to say that the minister did not say that speed information was not available in real time but to the reasonable reader it implied that the system did not measure speed at all as opposed to record it for later reference. The conversation we had with Jon Cox, however, left me with an entirely different impression and it flowed from the request from Steve Charlish to see the speed of the (I believe) Easyjet aircraft approaching NEMA as we looked at the screen in question. We would not have been shown the speed of that aircraft had he not asked if it were possible to show it on the screen but Jon Cox, candidly and with nothing to hide, flicked the relevant switch and we could see the aircraft speed on the screen. The conversation moved on to Jon suggesting that it would be possible for the speeds to be referred to later if someone asked for them which was, whether intentionally or not, entirely contrary to what the minister wrote to me in October 2005.

I do not suggest that Jon Cox was doing anything other than telling us the unvarnished truth. He struck me as a thoroughly decent man honestly doing his very best to tell us all he could about his job and what his radar equipment could do. Undoubtedly he is good at his job and you are lucky to have him in post. It is though significant that no one other than Jon Cox has previously thought it appropriate to say until then what he said to us, either orally or in all the many letters that have passed between the management of NEMA and interested parties since the new routes over Harborough became an issue of public concern. In any event, we have now established through that conversation with Jon Cox that you can keep a record of aircraft speeds and not just of the altitude and direction of an aircraft.

It surely is vital, if we are to conduct discussions on this major interference in the lives of my constituents caused by aircraft noise and air pollution (and I know and understand the economic arguments and those based on necessity that NEMA puts forward), that irrespective of our differences of opinion we do not allow either side for one moment to be suspected of, whether justifiably or not, being anything other than wholly frank with each other. As you know only too well my opinion of NEMA was for some time pretty low and getting lower but I was prepared to welcome, and expected to see, an improvement in its reputation for public accountability and neighbourly consideration following your own and Penny’s appointments. To an extent and from time to time that has been borne out and I am genuinely grateful. You have been far more accessible than your predecessors. I still believe that is possible to improve the situation but I really do need to see an end to NEMA’s appearing to want, unless pushed, to keep its cards face down on the table and of my finding, as I have said in the Commons several times, that getting facts out of NEMA is more difficult than drawing teeth.

Now that I know that you can record aircraft speed, and given that the method of reducing speed has a direct bearing on the amount and type of noise over my constituents’ heads, may I suggest that NEMA would be making a great leap forward in assisting in its own cause if it were routinely to record and make available on the new webpage you are producing tomorrow the speeds of the approaching aircraft at say 5 mile intervals from the runway out to say 50 miles. This would surely add clarity to the debate where presently there is not enough and would allow us, the public and its parliamentary representatives, to know where responsibility for the noise lies. If it is outside your jurisdiction I cannot blame NEMA and can approach the relevant organisation; if it is within your jurisdiction you can deal with it firmly in the knowledge that you will have my support in disciplining the airlines that are allowing their aircraft to approach too fast and avoiding the continuous descent approach.

Clearly you as a company and an airport are here for the long term. So am I and those who succeed me as MP for Harborough. We have an obligation to get on but I have a duty to be blunt if the occasion requires it. My letters are not a personal attack on you or Penny or Neil Robinson; they are the evidence of an MP doing his job so please let us get to a state where neither side is hiding facts and neither side is impugning each other’s motives.

In view of the wide circulation of the correspondence between NEMA and Steve Charlish and the public interest in this issue as well as your embargoed press release about your new webpage I am making this letter available to the list of addressees on your email to Steve dated 31 August and the local media.

With best wishes

Yours sincerely

Edward

Edward Garnier QC MP (Harborough)