Engagement locally

Tens of thousands of people travel through Stansted Airport every day. Around 11,600 people – many of them local – come to work here too. In many respects, the airport is the equivalent of a small town in its own right, dealing with a wide variety of day-to-day issues associated with a people-focussed business of the scale and complexity of an international airport operation.

A further dimension to this are the plans we have for growth and development, and during the year we have continued our work on two important projects.

First, to grow the capacity of our existing single runway from the current limit of 25 million passengers a year, to around 35 million a year in 2015. Second, to bring forward plans for the development of a second runway, which if approved would take passenger numbers to some 68 million a year in 2030.

Taking together the challenges of day-today operations and our plans for growth, the priority we place on talking with and listening to the local community has been of particular importance during the past year – and we have devoted significant resources to the task.

We communicate regularly with local residents, elected representatives, business leaders, community organisations and others to keep everyone up to date with our plans and fully informed about our operations.

We value the two-way communication we have, and continue to listen – and act when we can – on what people tell us, as we shape our plans for the future. We recognise the impact a growing airport will have on local communities; we know that some people oppose as well as support our plans for the future; we also know that many thousands of local people travel through Stansted on leisure trips, for business or to visit family and friends.

So our communications challenge is to address all of these diverse interests.

Our public pledge is:

"We cannot promise to do everything that is asked of us, but we will listen to every point of view and if we can respond positively to reflect your views, we will do so. If we cannot, we will always explain why."

Here are some examples of how we have communicated with people during the year:

Publications

Plane Talk: our community newsletter is regularly sent direct to over 180,000 local residents within 15 miles of the airport. Six editions were published during the year, including two special editions that were sent to residents in specific areas to address particular local issues. We believe the newsletter to be popular, judging by the positive feedback we receive, and we have the opportunity to respond to many hundreds of questions and comments sent to us on a wide range of matters.

A poll during the year indicated that over 60% of readers regarded Plane Talk as their most important source of information about Stansted Airport.

Meaning Business: is targeted at local and regional business leaders, and two editions were sent to over 25,000 businesses last year. Following research and feedback on reader preference, the format has now changed to a monthly electronic version.

Eco news: the first edition of our environmental newsletter was launched in October 2006 and was sent to local environment organisations and other stakeholders. It provides the opportunity to update readers on our environmental programme at the airport, including areas such as waste, water management and energy saving.

Take Off & Learn: we wrote to all local schools introducing BAA’s new educational ‘Take Off & Learn’ website: www.baa.com/learn

Other publications: we also supported a number of non-BAA publications during the year. These include advertising in:

• Visitor Guide to Uttlesford 2007
• Bishop’s Stortford Official Guide 2007
• Suffolk IOD magazine
• Essex Chamber of Commerce magazine
• Stansted accommodation guide

Consultations

Following extensive public consultation, our second runway development proposal was published on 30 January 2007. On 27 February 2007 a surface access consultation was launched on proposals for the transport infrastructure required to support a two-runway airport at Stansted, also taking account of future growth in the region.

As with previous consultations, a number of public exhibitions were held in local towns at which topic experts and project leaders were on hand to answer questions and explain the detail of the proposals.

Information was also sent direct to over 180,000 homes and to local amenities including doctors surgeries, post offices, libraries and for display on community notice boards.

A dedicated freephone telephone number and email address were available for people to feedback comments on the surface access proposals. Both of these continue to be available to the public for any questions or comments on any of our future plans.

We launched our rail schemes consultation on 6 June 2007 to invite comment on the different rail options available to support a two-runway airport at Stansted. This consultation runs until 31 July 2007.

Website

Our dedicated website, www.stanstedairport.com/future has been continuously updated throughout the year providing full information and background on our second runway project, and all our expansion plans. Visitors to the site have been able to examine the full detail of our plans, including maps and copies of our public exhibition material. Comments and questions were invited, and a questionnaire was available for visitors to respond with their views on specific questions about the proposed development.

The site was re-launched in January 2007 to coincide with the announcement on our second runway development proposal, and continues to be widely accessed by those wanting the latest information.

Representative bodies
The following bodies all play an important role in our community engagement programme at Stansted, and we are grateful to all those representatives and
participants who have been involved during the year:

• Business Forum
• Stansted Transport Forum (see Surface transport)
• Employment Forum (see The local economy)
• Noise and Track Keeping Working Group (see Noise)
• Stansted Airport Consultative Committee (STACC)

STACC meets four times a year and includes representatives from local authorities, business groups, travel organisations and passenger groups. STACC provides a forum for discussion on a wide range of airport matters.

More information can be found on: www.stacc.info

Noise communications

Our noise communications team takes calls from the public and regular visits are made to local areas to explain the work we do. In 2006/07 the team gave noise briefings in Ware and Sudbury; produced two special noise-related editions of Plane Talk, our community newsletter; and launched new departure and arrival maps showing the routes and heights of planes to and from the airport.

For more information on the work of our noise communication team please see the Noise section of this report.