News: Minister calls nuisance reduction measures a valuable building block

The Minister of Infrastructure and Water Management has assessed the initiatives Schiphol and Air Traffic Control the Netherlands (LVNL) are taking to reduce noise nuisance. In a letter to the House of Representatives, the Minister calls the programme of nuisance-reducing measures on minderhinderschiphol.nl a valuable building block to continue working on noise nuisance in the area around Schiphol.

Published on: 5 April 2022

Broad and public consultation

The Minister bolsters his words with two reports. One assesses the extent to which Schiphol and LVNL asked the opinions of local residents and other stakeholders in the community, and how that input was handled. Based on this report, the Minister concludes that the nuisance-reducing measures were drawn up after a broad and public consultation.

Ambitious nuisance reduction

The other report, carried out by consultancy company To70, concerns the level of ambition of the measures to reduce noise nuisance. The Minister writes that: 'In their report, To70 concludes that the measures contained in the nuisance reduction plan are in line with the complaints, the nuisance experienced, and the suggestions and proposals to limit nuisance that were made to the airport by the local community. The plan is, within the given framework of the new system for norms and enforcement (NNHS), an ambitious one and ensures that nuisance reduction will occur now and in the future.'

Recommendations

The Minister also includes recommendations in his letter. He writes that, in the future, extra attention can be paid to clarity about the scope of the programme and that it is important to work on comprehensibility for a broad target group. Schiphol and LVNL will take these recommendations into account when continuing to implement the nuisance reduction programme.

Find the Dutch letter to the House of Representatives here.