We Are HACAN East.

Hi there, and thank you for taking the time to learn about our campaign. We are HACAN East, a resident's group set up in 2011 to represent the views of people affected by both noise and pollution from London City Airport.

• HACAN East has been representing residents for a number of years now, giving a voice to people living under flight paths
• City Airport has gradually increased the number of flights and noise over particular communities in recent years.
• At busy times of the day, planes can be coming overhead one every minute or so. This produces constant noise pollution - up to 90dB in some areas! 

Graphic showing changes in flight paths introduced in February, 2016. 

Background.

London City Airport opened in 1987 despite a campaign by local residents who felt it was wrong to build an airport so close to where people live in one of the poorest boroughs in the country (Newham).

The airport promised it would be just served by quiet planes, ‘whispering jets’ they called them. But these promises were never kept. City Airport has in the last few years received permission for a 50% increase in the number of planes using the airport which would permit 120,000 planes to use the airport each year. The quieter turbo-prop aircraft are gradually being replaced by jets.

The increase number of jets using the airport has a big effect on the area. For many people close to the areas the noise from the turbo-props was bearable; the noise of the jets is not. The jets require wider take-off paths so new take-off paths were introduced with the result that wide swathes of East London are now suffering noise nuisance. Many areas get Heathrow aircraft noise as well – some of the East London boroughs are the most-heavily overflown in London. People around the airport also complain of air pollution problems.

'Noise Ghettos'.

So if City Airport gets permission to expand, the number of flights could increase from 76,000 to 120,000 per year – even more noise and pollution over tens of thousands of people’s homes. We think that this is unacceptable and we want to change this.

Local residents have chosen the title Noise Ghetto for the campaign because they feel this is the best way to describe how they feel living under these concentrated flight paths.

We think that these Noise Ghettos are unacceptable. City Airport did NOT consult residents about these changes and have, over the last few years, allowed aircraft noise and pollution to gradually increase to unacceptable levels.

Campaign of a Lifetime. 

These new concentrated flight paths were introduced on 4th February, 2016. Immediately after the changes commenced, HACAN East received HUNDREDS of complaints. We decided now is the time to act.

We are going to be mounting the ‘Campaign of a Lifetime’, which will aim to reverse these changes within 12 months, when the Civil Aviation Authority must review airspace changes. This will help re-establish the quality of life for people in the affected communities.

By concerted effort to mount ever-increasing pressure on the Civil Aviation Authority and on London City Airport itself, we know that we can make change happen. Bringing the fight to the authorities will elicit change.

It is only through the community working together that can we can effectively take on these authorities, reverse these concentrated flight paths and stop City Airport Expansion. 

Though in order to help make this happen, we do need your help.

We need to raise £25,000 in order to make this campaign happen.

Campaigns cost money, and to make our work as effective as possible we need to attain MAXIMUM exposure. This can be achieved through activities such as leafletting, cost-effective advertising and spending on resident and volunteer organisation. Below are some examples of how we would be planning to spend donations:

• £5 will print 100 HACAN East campaign posters for supporters to display in their windows
• £25 enables us to undertake an online social media campaign, targeted at people living in affected communities
• £100 pays for a large round of leaflets
• £250 allows us to effectively leaflet for, advertise and pay for the costs of a public meeting to inform residents about the campaign
• £5,000 would fund a large public rally, which we would like to hold in the summer

How You Can Help.

Whilst funding is incredibly important, we recognise that some of you may not be in a financial position to support a campaign.

You can still help by spreading awareness of our campaign, and sharing our Crowdfunder on Social Media.

Twitter: @HACANEast

Facebook: HACANEast

Instagram: hacaneast

Website: www.hacaneast.org.uk

Email: [email protected]

We will need all the help we can get to win this campaign, and any support you can give us is greatly appreciated.

Thank you.