Hello Julie
Yes, the RRA are at the forefront, along with HADRA (Hartley & District RA) and six other RAs locally about the proposed changes to flight paths over the south of the Borough, landing at Biggin Hill. We are opposing this and have the support of a number of local politicians who would have these flights over their own properties.
The Croydon Advertiser did run a story in all editions on Friday 22 Jan 2016 about this and we supplied them with the "press release". We will also be running updates on our website on this link
http://www.riddlesdownresidents.org.uk/bigginhillairpost.html We will also update on our Facebook page.
Yes Riddlesdown does suffer with overflying, with the stacking of aircraft bound for Heathrow immediately above the Biggin Hill beacon (at about 9 -13,000 feet). This Heathrow bound air traffic is usually at 7 to 9,000 feet above us. It is proposed Biggin Hill arriving aircraft will be at 3,000 feet. Considerably lower. You also have to take into account the terrain and as aircraft altitude is taken at sea level, this means with some parts of our the Borough at 500 feet above sea level, planes would be at 2,500 feet above those areas!
In addition we do also get outbound flights from Heathrow over us, which are usually below the inbound flights by about 1 to 2,000 feet. This Flightradra24 is a good website to track flights and the height (click on a plane to give more details)
http://www.flightradar24.com/51.47,-0.32/9This is the Biggin Hill consultation document
http://www.bigginhillairport.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/CL-5108-Doc-024-Spon... Consultation close on 17 February 2016.
We will be listing our objections on our website in due course, after Chris Philp MP and Steve O'Connell (GLA Member) have met with the Managing Director of Biggin Hill in early February.
As to a 3rd runway, the answer is probably yes. We would no doubt have more flights over us, in addition to the proposed much lower flights of Biggin Hill bound aircraft.