by Don Mort, local democracy reporter
Airport bosses have been served with an enforcement notice after overnight flights were found to have breached noise rules.
The council took action over the types of aircraft allowed to fly from Leeds-Bradford Airport (LBA) between 11pm-7am.
Leeds City Council said the airport breached a planning condition which does not allow planes deemed too noisy to fly between those hours.
LBA said the breaches were “historic” and measures to restrict such flights had been in place since 2023.
A council spokesperson said: “The notice requires the airport to take steps to ensure there are no further breaches of the condition.
“The airport has the right to appeal against the serving of the notice.”
The move was welcomed by GALBA, the Group for Action on Leeds Bradford Airport, which campaigns against night flights.
GALBA chairman Nick Hodgkinson said: “LBA has been ignoring the rules by flying noisy old planes in the early hours when people are trying to sleep.”
Aircraft are given a Quota Count (QC) number based on their noise impact around airports.
Leeds City Council said LBA data showed there were 272 night-time departures by QC1 aircraft between July 11, 2008, and December 23, 2019.
The enforcement notice said non-compliance with the planning condition “fails to minimise the potential for increased noise disturbance to residents in the vicinity of the airport.”
It added: “It appears to the council that the above breach of planning control has occurred within the last ten years.”
LBA previously appealed against separate planning decisions by the council restricting night-time flights.
The airport company has also called for a public inquiry into night flight planning conditions.
An LBA spokesperson said: “This enforcement notice relates to a small proportion of historic breaches by older, nosier aircraft of night-time departure limits.
“In 2023, we implemented robust measures to actively manage the use of these aircraft, with any airline found to be in breach of the restrictions now being fined and the monies raised put towards local community causes.”
So why did the clowncil not enforce this in the past? Surely the clowncil are responsible for such things? If you read into the Quota count (QC) then non of the aircraft that currently operates into LBA actually are QC1,so don’t break any noise restrictions, it seems the clowncil are just trying to please the GALBA group again
I think its more a case of the council eventually having to do something, after turning a blind eye for as long as they could. The airport does what it wants and says whatever those councillors with vested interests want to hear, but there comes a point when the council has to be seen to be doing something, as ineffective as that might be.
The ‘infinite monkey theorem’ states that a primate hitting keys at random on a typewriter keyboard for an infinite amount of time couldn’t produce a more incoherent comment than the one from Jonathan above. Yup!