The November 2023 winning quiz team were thrilled with their Letters Inc prizes.

Thanks to the generosity of those who attended and all the volunteers who helped make our second quiz night of the year a success, we raised enough to make a donation to Nourish Community Foodbank, as well as to fund the fabulous Crochet&Chat and Langton Ladybirds Christmas get-togethers and the Langton Green Rainbows and Brownies end of term Christmas crafting activity.

A special thanks to Nicci Levy of the Village Society for planning and overseeing the whole evening.

Dear Residents.

                                    URGENT NEWS ABOUT GATWICK APPLICATION FOR 2ND RUNWAY

As you may know, the Government website for registering  views on Gatwick's proposed plans for a 2nd runway "shut down" due to technical faults a day before it was due to, Sunday 29th October..  It is possible that comments from interested people and groups , submitted on 29th, were not in fact registered and recorded due to systems failure.

The government has recognised the faults and re opened the registration system, for people and groups wishing to register their comments as per the note from GSCC below.  Revised submission closure date Sunday 19th November 2023.

A simple cut and paste objection letter can be found below.  If you have not yet submitted your comments or objections can we urge all residents to take 10 minutes, logon to the site and either submit their own comments or copy and paste from the village website.

If this unneeded application is granted, Gatwick will become as big as Heathrow is today.  And it will fail to meet any of the strategic needs previously identified for the UK aviation industry.  The application is a purely "speculative punt" from a company that has no interest in the communities it hurts and is purely about extra profits for foreign investors.

We do hope you can spare the time to register and comment to the enquiry process. A local Heathrow would be bad for everyone and it would solve no real needs.

Thank you

Langton Green Village Society

From:                    xxxxxxxxxx

Address and email:

To:                          The Gatwick Expansion Consultation advisory Committee

Deadline:             Sunday 19.11.2023

Web address:    https://infrastructure.planninginspectorate.gov.uk/projects/south-east/gatwick-airport-northern-runway/?ipcsection=relreps

My/our comments:

                                Please find my/our objections to Gatwick’s plans to build a 2^nd runway and probably grow to at least as big as London Heathrow is today.

I/we wish to register my/our objection to Gatwick’s expansion plans via the building of a second runway for the following reasons:

1. Gatwick is mainly a leisure flight airport.  A second  runway would give more of the same.
2. IN 2018 THE Government’s national airports strategy specifically recommended a 3^rd runway at Heathrow to meet its identified need of increased hub/connectivity capacity for the growth in demand  of greater business travel services.  No growth in demand for leisure travel was identified.
3. The Government is committed to Net Zero.  In 2020 The High Court ruled that the Heathrow plans were illegal because they clashed with the Net Zero commitments.  Increased leisure flights from Gatwick meet no UK strategic needs and will create an even greater clash with the high court. 
4. Gatwick expansion comes with a number of serious negatives:  Environmental impact from flight and airport-access travel.   Air quality and noise pollution. Increased Night flight disturbance. Insufficient road and rail access facilities.  Lack of local/available staff for the new roles.  The need to build houses for 15,000+ families.  Need for increased new support facilities – housing, medical, schools and more.  The false claims  about technology  (new fuels, quieter engines etc) being the route to Net Zero.
5. The  virtual impossibility of improving Gatwick  access services: Road bottleneck at Purley, need for a brand new/extra London:Brighton railway line.
6. Finally: Gatwick Airport’s well-deserved reputation as a terrible neighbour to the many communities its flights effect.

Gatwick Airport’s plans for a second runway are for the wrong  airport, in the wrong place for the majority of customers, meeting  no national need, offering the wrong type of services and in serious conflict with very important national objectives on the environment and the Uk’s drive to net Zero.  Gatwick’s plans should be vigorously refused.

This "planet" image was taken by a drone flying above All Saints Church. The two links below each opens a 360 degree rotatable image of Langton Green and its wide surroundings; one from the West and one from the East. The images can be zoomed a little by using the mouse wheel.

From your Village Society

Each year your Village Society plants more daffodils

The 2023 Annual Village Society Quiz

The first Langton Green Village Society Quiz Night for 3 years saw over 100 participants fill the Village Hall. The worthy winners following some tough questions were “Pam’s People” (see photo above), after a tense tie-break with “Keith is our Lucky Charm”. After the long period of lock-down it was a happy, and at times noisy event, and a great opportunity to meet and catch-up with friends. A big thank you to Anton the Quizmaster and his faithful team of scorers, to Lyn, Lawrence and Nicci Levy for the organisation and food preparation, to Dave Whittaker and James Bowdidge for bar duty, to Debbie Hargreaves for the delicious homemade sausage rolls and quiches, and to the others who helped.

Langton Green lies just two miles from Royal Tunbridge Wells in an area of outstanding natural beauty. As a consequence, the village enjoys all the benefits of an active village community of around 2500 people, yet is within easy reach of the delights of the famous spa town, with its easy access to the City (train journey of around 55 minutes), the coast and the M25 motorway network.

Langton Green has a long history dating back to the 1300s where, just like its neighbour Tunbridge Wells, royalty used to come to stay and to live. The first Princess of Wales – Joanna, the Fair Maid of Kent and mother of King Richard II, is reported to have lived at The Hollonds in the village around 1353. In the second half of the 19th Century, Princess Louise, the 4th daughter of Queen Victoria, lived at Dornden in Langton Green for ten years with her husband, the Marquis of Lorne. The Queen visited them in 1876. Prince Andrew of Yugoslavia lived here (also at The Hollonds) in the 1950s and the village was also the home of Prince and Princess Weikersheim in the same period. So perhaps a claim should be made for our village to be called ‘Royal Langton Green’?

Decimus Burton has had an important influence on the village, designing at least two houses of great significance. The Hollonds is one (mentioned above) and Holmewood House is the other, now a well-known independent girls and boys school.

THE LANGTON GREEN VILLAGE SIGN

This website was created, and is maintained, by the Langton Green Village Society for the benefit of the village. If you have a news item or event which is about, from or happening in the village, you may contact us here.