Gatwick consultative committee '˜not spineless'

Gatwick Airport 5-1-15 (Pic by Jon Rigby) SUS-150601-100616001

A Horsham councillor has hit back at comments she said were aimed at GATCOM, which accused the committee of being '˜a bit spineless'.

GATCOM – the Gatwick Airport Consultative Committee – was set up in the 1980s to advise airport leaders about issues causing concern among air travellers and within the local community.

High on that list has been noise.

Liz Kitchen (Con, Rusper and Colgate), who has served as Horsham District Council’s representative on the committee ‘for more years than [she was] prepared to admit’, spoke during a full council meeting at Parkside on September 5.

Mrs Kitchen said problems with airport noise – and the perception of noise – in the area had seen some anti-noise groups taking aim at GATCOM, even though the committee has no decision-making powers.

While she did not name names, after the meeting Mrs Kitchen said: “There have been comments that GATCOM is a bit spineless because it is made up too much of people working at the airport and not so much local people who are worried about airport noise.