Throughout the consultation processes, London Southend Airport has carefully listened to what residents have had to say about their key issues. The proposals have tried to address, where possible, the issues raised during the consultation. Here are some of the most common.

Creation of a new runway extension
The airport’s existing runway is 1,605 metres long and 37 metres wide. The proposed runway extension would increase the runway length to 1,905 metres whilst maintaining the runway width at 37 metres. With the extension the airport runway would be able to declare an available take off distance of 1,799 metres.

The runway would continue to be categorised as a Code 3 Aerodrome, taking aircraft with generally up to 160 passengers such as Airbus A319 and Boeing 737 (which are typically used for short haul operations). The airport would not be able to handle larger wide-bodied passenger aircraft such as Boeing 747 (jumbo jets).

The installation of an Instrument Landing System (ILS) for aircraft arriving from the south west would improve safety as well as increasing the angle of descent of aircraft on approach, meaning they would be slightly higher in the sky.

A new route for Eastwoodbury Lane and alterations to St Laurence Park
The proposed runway extension would stretch across Eastwoodbury Lane requiring its closure. The planning application proposes to divert Eastwoodbury Lane and the footpath to form a replacement link between the section of Eastwoodbury Lane to the south of the airport and Nestuda Way.

The road would be a single carriageway road with a shared footpath and cycleway.

The proposals for the new road diversion have been carefully designed to minimise impact on St Laurence Park. The proposed design leaves the southern area of the park including the mini football pitch largely unaffected. The northern area of the park containing a children’s play area and basketball hoop would, however, be split from the main park. It is proposed to re-provide these facilities to the south of the new road. The area of the park north of the new road will be retained and enhanced to form a naturalised wildlife meadow and nature conservation area with public access.

The park would be extended to the east over agricultural land and overall be over 1 hectare (2.5 acres) larger, than at present.

St Laurence and All Saints Church

The development will have no direct impact on the church building. It does however require that for safety reasons, a section of the churchyard wall be removed. This will be replaced with a mature yew hedge which will continue to mark the historic boundary of the churchyard in a traditional way.

The materials from the wall will be re-used to construct a new section of wall along the western boundary of the churchyard, replacing a fragmented hedge. Access to the main church entrance off the closed Eastwoodbury Lane would be maintained through a new traditional gated entrance. Beyond the gate the existing road access and lay-by will be reconfigured to provide a small parking and turning area to the south of the church for church ceremonies. The revised proposals will provide a private and enclosed landscaped area.

The church car park and boundary landscaping would also be improved

Noise and night flights
The airport has consulted widely with the local community and key interest groups. Drawing on the views and concerns raised during consultation, the proposals have been refined to ensure that the development will bring additional benefits to the community at the same time as managing and mitigating negative effects.

Please select the following link to view a short video on runway configuration and how it effects noise.

With the proposals the airport has therefore prepared a legal agreement offering many commitments. The commitments include:

Tackling climate change
The airport is committed to reducing its own carbon footprint during the redevelopment, ensuring that new buildings conform to the highest standards, encouraging use of public transport (including the development of a new rail station), reducing long journey times to the major London airports for existing passengers and, via the runway extension, allowing the modern, fuel efficient aircraft to use the airport to operate routes.

The aviation industry will be included in the European Union Carbon Trading Scheme from 2012. This means that airlines operating commercial flights within the EU will have to offset increases in carbon emission by paying for reductions in other sectors through the carbon trading scheme.

In the future more flights from Southend will be commercial flights and therefore be subject to emissions trading. This means that the development of the airport will actually lead to a reduction in carbon emissions because more of the airport’s operations will fall within the emissions trading scheme.

Further reductions in emissions would arise from reduced surface travel distances to Southend.
Passengers traveling from Southend would predominantly lie within the local catchment area and therefore their journeys to Southend would be shorter than those they would otherwise make to other airports such as Stansted and Gatwick.

In total we have estimated that these aircraft and surface access benefits will reduce carbon emissions by 3,750 of tonnes per year.