FARNHAM residents are being urged to protest against proposals to double the number of weekend and bank holiday flights at Farnborough Airport. TAG Aviation has submitted an application to Rushmoor Borough Council to double the number of flights allowable at weekends and bank holidays from the current 2,500 to 5,000. If granted by the council, this would result in four flights per hour during permitted flying times on Saturdays, Sundays and bank holidays. Only recently, Sir Donald Spiers of TAG Aviation spoke to The Herald in an effort to reassure residents who live under the flight path that disruption caused by the increase in flights will be minimal. "Farnborough Airport has grown into the successful business hub for Farnborough and beyond," he said. "In order to sustain this, we need to make this alteration to our weekend and bank holiday movements. This is to meet the business demands created by companies who need to operate their businesses worldwide on a seven-day-a-week basis. We intend to continue to be good neighbours to the communities that surround us and will be listening to concerns raised during this process." Yet local residents have blasted the proposals and attempts by TAG Aviation to reassure the public about their proposals. In a recent letter to The Herald, Farnham resident David Seal said: "Experience over the past three years has shown Sunday afternoons to be the busiest period. Clearly, the demands of a relatively small number of 'busy' executives must have priority at the expense of the thousands of residents whose Sunday afternoons and bank holidays will be further disturbed. "In addition to commercial flights, the skies over the Farnham area at weekends are frequently populated by private traffic to and from Blackbushe and other neighbouring airfields. The increase noise nuisance and risk resulting from TAG's proposal, if implemented, would be unacceptable to most residents." TAG Aviation's recent public consultation about their proposals at St Mark's Church Hall in Farnborough has been branded a "farcical public relations exercise" by Camberley resident Glenn Morrison. In a recent letter to The Herald he said: "The exhibition comprised seven A3 boards with pretty pictures and was manned by badly briefed individuals merely on hand to collect viewpoints. "Outside the hall, an angry crowd discussed how they, and thousands of people like them, in Surrey Heath, Rushmoor, Waverley and Hart were about to have a company destroy the fabric of their lives by doubling the volume of flights. 'What gives them the right' was the common call. All were clear that this was probably the thin edge of the wedge and that further increases would be sought and soon." People who wish to object to TAG Aviation's proposals can write to Planning Services, Rushmoor Borough Council, Council Offices, Farnborough Road, Farnborough, Hants GU14 7JU. Local residents can also voice their views at a meeting of the Farnborough Aerodrome consultative committee that is scheduled for 2 pm on Thursday, November 14, at BAe Systems, Government House Road, Farnborough.
