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Civil Aviation Bill

I have indeed considered that. One of my questions for the Minister was this: can local councils use the additional powers that they have recently been given against aircraft operators who, it can be argued, are behaving antisocially by creating noise at night? If I did that to my neighbours every night from 4.30 am to 6 am, they would surely complain. What action can local councils now take against aircraft operators landing early in the morning and late at night? This is an act of community vandalism. The Government came to power saying that they would be the servants of the people not the masters, but they have completely reversed that position by systematically ignoring millions of people in the south-east, particularly in London, and going ahead with their proposal to take away the cap on movements into and out of Heathrow, irrespective of what local people say. After the first stage of the night flights consultation, I asked the Government to tell me precisely how many people had asked for an increase in night flights, given that that was the proposal in stage 2. I received no answer of substance. As the Minister may be aware, I went down to the Department for Transport to look through the responses and correspondence that it had received after stage 1. I found a total of three people who wrote in suggesting more night flights. I saw responses from councils representing 2.3 million people who had expressed their concerns over the current level of night flights, with most wanting them eventually to be reduced to zero and many wanting that to happen immediately. I saw correspondence from more than 1,000 individual constituents and petitions from several hundred constituents all saying that they were concerned about the existing level of night flights and wanted a reduction. What we have from the Government is merely a political fudge. People in my constituency are expected to be pleased because the Government have not made the situation any worse. That is unacceptable. They have been systematically ignored, and that will not be sustainable in the long run. The Government talk about sustainable communities and sustainable development, but that seems to end when it comes to airport expansion. One has to ask why so many millions of constituents can be ignored over such a prolonged period. That suggests that any ongoing consultations are merely a sham that do not recognise the real consultations that are going on behind the scenes with aircraft and airline operators. Today I tabled parliamentary questions to elicit from the Government what meetings they have had with aircraft operators and other interested industry participants. If the Minister can answer tonight, I will be interested to hear the outcome. The Government cannot scratch their head and wonder why people do not turn out to vote in local and national elections when they ignore people so systematically on such a clear issue as the expansion of Heathrow, night flights and movement limits on all airports—not only Heathrow but Stansted and Gatwick. That is a democratic deficit that cannot be allowed to continue. I hope that even at this late stage, the Minister will decide to withdraw the Government proposal.