Horsforth residents have their say at LBA meeting

By Jill Stocks

More than 40 residents of Horsforth attended a public meeting about Leeds Bradford Airport at St Margaret’s Church last Wednesday evening.

The event, entitled “LBA Community – A sustainable business and good neighbour”, was one of several public events in the towns and villages adjacent to LBA that have already taken place or are planned for the future. 

The meeting consisted of a presentation from LBA CEO Vincent Hodder providing information on the airport, which had 4.3 million users last year. This was followed by an opportunity for residents to ask questions and express concerns. 

The main concern raised by residents concerned noise from departures between 6am and 7am with one describing it as “the most disruptive time for us, particularly during holiday periods.”

Another agreed and added: “It’s not the volume of the planes, it is when. Why is it that our perception suddenly in the past couple of years is there’s 20 planes taking off between 6am and 7am” That is the trigger for most people complaining. What’s changed from that perspective in the last couple of years?”

The designated night time flight period at LBA is 11pm to 7am. Flights have been operating 24 hours from LBA since 1994 but during this period only certain quiet aircraft are permitted to operate. 

LBA’s nighttime flight restrictions are among the most stringent in comparison to other UK commercial airports.  

Answering these concerns Vincent Hodder, CEO of LBA, said it was difficult to get a common ground that pleased all parties. 

“Different groups of people from different parts of the region want different things of the airport,” he said.

“What I have to try and do is balance between all of the different stakeholders, not just those who are impacted by the noise overnight of the aircraft flying over their houses.

“I recognise that for the people living directly under the flightpath this sucks. This is not a great outcome. But for the broader Leeds, Bradford and West Yorkshire region what we are doing is essential.”

Noise produced by every single flight leaving or landing at the airport is recorded by Leeds City Council, which owns the monitoring stations alongside the flight routes. Improvements in technology and aircraft design over the past 30 years have led to much quieter aircraft.

Out of 34,000 flights last year only three exceeded the noise limit as dictated by LCC. Aircraft are required to use a noise preferential route on take off and landing. 

In the fourth quarter of 2024 51 complaints about noise were received, with most referring to noise made during the night rather than during the day. 

Mr Hodder added: “The problem is that when you hear noise your reaction to it is completely subjective. Two people can hear the same noise. One person is incredibly frustrated by it, one person doesn’t even notice it.

“So this is really hard to solve for the fact that this is completely subjective. I’m not saying that to downplay the impact on those individuals of the aircraft noise.”

Ian Coatman is a Horsforth resident and secretary of the Group for Action on Leeds Bradford Airport (GALBA).

He said that their vision and that of LBAs were quite different: “This event is about how the airport is a good neighbour. Mr Hodder has his vision 2030. Our vision is completely different to Mr Hodder’s. His is a vision which centres on money and profit and Mr Hodder won’t deny that. 

“Unfortunately for the rest of us profit means they want to expand and when they want to expand there’s going to be more night flights because they can’t expand without a huge increase in night flights. And that is very serious for public health. 

“It’s a fact that the noise disturbance from night flights causes all sorts of illnesses. If LBA were really keen on being good neighbours then they wouldn’t be having more night flights. 

“My vision for 2030 and beyond is quite different from Mr Hodder’s. My vision is that we leave this planet in a fit state and healthy state that future generations can thrive. 

“This evening is an exercise in greenwashing. The reality is if they expand and they double in size which is what they want to do there’ll be twice as much CO2 released.”

Nicky Ford, also from GALBA, added: “The airports will justify their expansion on economic grounds but in fact the evidence shows that the economic benefits for a local economy are very small.” 

An intended protest outside the venue by GALBA was scaled down amid concerns about disruption to other vulnerable users of the parish centre. 

Cllr Ray Jones (Lab, Horsforth) sits on the Airport Consultative Committee.

He said: “My opinion is that I think the airport needs to abide by the agreed rules as they were laid out when they first started up and to add to that when the public enquiry decides what they need to do the airport needs to decide what its view of that is.”

Following the conclusion of the meeting Mr Hodder said he thought the evening had gone well.

“I thought it was a good engaged debate. It’s ok that there are views from different parts of the spectrum and it’s ok for us to air those publicly and to give our perspective. So I thought it was successful doing that. 

“I thought that we were able to communicate real information about the airport where there is a lot of misinformation and misunderstanding that historically goes on.

“We’re committed to continuing this process – we did Burley-In-Wharfedale on Monday, we’ve done Horsforth today. The next round is in August. So every couple of months we will do two in a week. Our intent is to continue doing that process over the long period of time.

“Over time that will allow us to better develop the two way nature of communication. At the moment we’re starting from behind. 

“We’ve got some stuff we need to tell people because we’ve seen a lot of misinformation about the airport going out there. We’re doing our best to try and correct that and set a new baseline and then we can all build on that.”

The new terminal at LBA opened on Tuesday 17 June with upgraded terminal facilities. The opening of the terminal marks the end of the first phase of the airport’s £100 million ongoing expansion project. 

A public inquiry into night-time flying rules at LBA began in March but a decision could be some time away.