Councils lose night flights battle

A judge ruled that Wandsworth, Richmond and Windsor and Maidenhead councils had wrongly tried to resurrect issues which had been dealt with years ago.

It was an "abuse" of the court process for the councils to launch a "root and branch attack" in relation to the same issues rather than address the compensatory measures - such as sound insulation of houses - put forward by the Department, said Mr Justice Sullivan.

Lawyers for the councils had asked the judge to declare unlawful decisions made by former Transport Secretary Douglas Alexander on which type of plane, and how many, should be permitted to land at Heathrow before 6am.

They accused the Department of unlawfully failing to act after it was discovered three years ago that the Rolls Royce-powered Boeing 747-400, the main type used by airlines during the night quota period at Heathrow, had been wrongly classified at too low a noise level.

In a case contested by the current Transport Secretary, Ruth Kelly, the councils contended that her predecessor had "failed to address the statutory test of the effect of aircraft noise or, if he did address it, did so in an irrational and disproportionate manner and contrary to his own policies".

The law required a fair balance to be struck between the interests of society in general and those of individuals. By not acting on the misclassification of the 747-400, the Government had failed in its duty to protect residents from excessive noise at night, it was argued.

Reclassification would have forced airlines to substitute quieter aircraft or withdraw early morning services. There are around 16 early morning arrivals each day between 4.30am and 6am.

The judge said the Transport Secretary had acted on expert advice on noise levels. That advice was open to dispute, but he was not "setting off on some frolic of his own".

But the battle between the noise experts did not enable the court to say that the minister had acted unreasonably.