Campaigners have won the right to bring an Appeal Court challenge against new Gatwick flight paths they say are causing “intolerable” noise for locals.
A senior judge overruled a High Court decision rejecting the bid for a judicial review of the way the routes had been brought in. Lord Justice Burnett, sitting in the Appeal Court, found that while there was a “formidable hurdle” for the appeal he did not regard it as “beyond reasonable argument”.
He ordered that the case be heard in the Appeal Court as it could have wider consequences for other airports.
Photographer Martin Barraud, chair of action group Gatwick Obviously Not, launched the judicial review action against the Civil Aviation Authority. He argued the CAA acted unlawfully by failing to carry out a public consultation before advising the Transport Secretary on changes to flights arriving from the South and South East.
Mr Barraud, of Penshurst, Kent, said inbound traffic had been funnelled into a narrow swathe, more than doubling the frequency of low-level planes over Tunbridge Wells and the High Weald.
The CAA said it had no legal authority to intervene in “tactical operational decisions” by air traffic controllers, and the action was “without merit”.
But Lord Justice Burnett disagreed. The senior judge stressed that the CAA’s 2001 Directions, paragraph 9c, related to the distribution of noise under arrival tracks to an aerodrome.
The CAA had argued that paragraph 9c was “narrowly constructed”, undermining the campaigners’ case.
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