Complain

HOW TO COMPLAIN TO GATWICK

Tunbridge Wells must be heard.

Population Numbers Count

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COMMENTS ON GATWICK'S WEBTRAK FLIGHT TRACKING AND COMPLAINTS SYSTEM AND NOISE WEBSITE

Gatwick’s ‘Insightful’ Noise Website (https://aircraftnoise.gatwickairport.com/) provides a considerable amount of information, but it has its problems as a source of useful information. Among issues we would identify are:

The WebTrak flight tracker only gives access to flights over the past 90 days (rolling). This makes it impossible to investigate and monitor issues such as such as scheduled flights being delayed into the night period during last summer - likely to be a growing problem if traffic increases as Gatwick intend. Heathrow use WebTrak and their display goes back 12 months.
The ‘Your Area’ section gives information about overflights and altitude, but for a whole postal area (first three characters of the postcode). For TN11 this gives the same altitude information for Hadlow (scarcely overflown) as Penshurst (constantly overflown at low altitude).
Where a postcode area is large, the average height shown under ‘Your Area’ tells you little about the low flights that are of most concern. The height and numbers of non-Gatwick traffic are of no great concern, they cause little disturbance in comparison.

In the ‘Where do Aircraft Fly’ section, the Heat Maps show averages but say nothing about peak traffic, either numbers or time of day (or night). August records do go back to 2013, and you can see from the sequence below that the change back to a joining point of 8 nautical miles from 10 in August 2016 as a result of an Arrivals Review recommendation had no noticeable effect on the position of the swathe.

Any feedback would be appreciated - to TWAANG at: twaang00@gmail.com.

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When in March 2013 Gatwick installed the Casper Noise and Track Keeping system (NTK), which included the registering and analysis of complaints, it was proudly presented with the words: “Casper is a new and innovative solution with enhanced graphical and reporting capabilities. This new system puts the airport at the leading edge of noise management and will be key to delivering our recently announced ‘Fly Quiet and Clean campaign’. This helps us in communication with stakeholders and brings us significant cost savings over the contract period”. It provided a considerable amount of information about Gatwick’s flight operations and was an example of good transparency.

It was withdrawn on 1 April 2019.

We were told that the new WebTrak system “will dramatically improve the monitoring of aircraft flights and associated noise as well as sharing more information directly with the local community.”

The system can be accessed on all types of platform from:
https://webtrak.emsbk.com/lgw2

The flight tracking is 25 minutes behind real time, but historical Replay is available for registering complaints, although only for the last 90 days.

FlightRadar24 remains the best way to identify an overhead flight in real time, at:
https://www.flightradar24.com/

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REGISTERING A COMPLAINT

If you wish to raise a complaint with Gatwick, have as much of the following information ready as possible:

• Your name and address including postcode.
• Date and exact time of the incident
• Any information you can obtain about the flight; airline, flight number &c.
• The nature of your complaint (noise, low flying etc).

Complaints can now be registered by the following means:

via the WebTrak Flight Tracker using the Replay facility (right click on the offending aircraft’s icon):

https://webtrak.emsbk.com/lgw2

using an on-line Web form at:

https://viewpoint-eu.emsbk.com/lgw3

using a new automated phone line which uses voice recognition to transcribe complaints into the new system (we have yet to try it):

01293 311 568

The previous Freepost address has been withdrawn.

Our web site is compatible with all platforms so you can use these links above on your phone or tablet - and bookmark them so they are readily available when needed.
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If you are dissatisfied with the response you are welcome to let us know so that we can suggest further action.

Here is an example of the map display that can be seen in WebTrak. Aircraft icons have a circle round them if they have violated Gatwick’s standards eg for a Continuous Descent approach - three in this picture. (The red track lines have been produced by our selection.)

Noise Monitor readings are shown in the green circles of various hues - note Crowborough's high reading, for example.