Planes should travel over a recognised ‘danger area’ rather than fly over Burnham, say town councillors.

Southend Airport bosses launched a public consultation, which ends today, on proposals to reinstate controlled airspace.

As part of Burnham Town Council’s response, mayor Neil Pudney suggested that planes could fly over a Ministry of Defence (MOD) site in Shoeburyness, which is established as an air danger area by the Civil Aviation Authority, due to the hazardous nature of work carried out there.

In a consultation response letter, Mr Pudney proposed that planes should approach the airport above the Shoeburyness site rather than over Burnham before 8am, after 6pm and at weekends because the facility “is inactive at in these periods and therefore doesn’t present a hazard.”

Southend airport operations director David Lister said: “This consultation is about implementing controlled airspace which provides a known and managed airspace environment.

“There are absolutely no proposals in our application to change any of the routes currently flown over Essex to and from London Southend Airport – and this includes the height of an aircraft’s departure or approach.”

See this week's MBS for the full story.