Heathrow has more of an impact on Greenwich than London City Airport?

Greenwich Time is usually worth a chuckle or two as the Council tries to spin it's way around various issues and attempts to make us feel like we're getting a good service.

The 16th of April issue (I said in my last post I've got a backlog of stuff I'm sorting out) provided a typical example.

A resident wrote in asking for support for a residents group objecting to the changes in the flight paths for Heathrow Airport which will, apparently, put far more planes over our heads. Which is all fair enough, however the Councils' response was far more interesting.

Apparently the Council did respond to the Heathrow consultation questioning the noise and air quality assumptions. They say they are monitoring developments to make sure their voice is heard "on this important issue".

Which is what a Council should be doing when you think about it.

It's a shame that they didn't show the same level of involvement when it came to London City Airport and planes flying several hundred feet, if that, over or heads rather than several thousand.

Councillor Peter Brooks is not only Greenwich's representative on the London City Airport Consultative Committee but also represents the people of Thamesmead, who have the planes going right over them.

He couldn't be bothered to attend any of the meetings of that Consultative Committee for the four years before October 2007, and quite possibly any of them since.

This despite their being a consultation in that period about increasing the number of flights by some 40,000.

When asked about his failure to attend his response was that there was nothing of impact to Greenwich that was going to be discussed.

So that extra 40,000 flights from the airport that he's on the committee for and going right over the heads of the very people he's meant to represent doesn't have any impact?

But changes to Heathrow do have enough impact for the Council to get involved?

What's the difference?

Why are local issues being ignored in favour of more wide scale ones with a lower impact?

I've said before that I get the feeling that far too many people who are involved in the politics of Greenwich, from all political parties, are not in it for the local area but instead see it as a leg up to the big boys in Westminster.

This lack of interest in the lives of the people of Thamesmead but involvement in what goes on at Heathrow seems to me to be just another example of that kind of problem.