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my meeting with MAG & police re Stansted spotting facilities

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andygolfer
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Location: Rayne Essex - 12 miles east of Stansted

my meeting with MAG & police re Stansted spotting facilities

Post by andygolfer » Tue Feb 20, 2018 3:27 pm

Background: 5 of us attended a meeting with the Planewatch police co-ordinator and MAG on 18th January. I was asked to put together a working party of 4 people and that comprised of myself, Nick Challoner – an experienced aviation photographer and my co-admin on the Stansted Enthusiasts google group (and a regular on this forum) , and 3 others.

For those who don’t know much or anything about me, I’ve been involved with enthusiasts groups at the airport for about 50 years, Air Britain-Stansted (I set up their facebook group and used to travel the south east with their sales stand in the 1970s amongst other things), the Stansted Aviation Society for which I wrote 2 sections for a few years and sometimes helped at their shop, Planewatch for whom I’ve been the link person for passing on information via the various media groups (as you have probably noticed), the google group (and previously Yahoo group) with Nick and also an admin on the nationwide http://www.civilianaviation.co.uk forum and their facebook group so I think it’s fair to say we had a team with a good deal of experience of the aviation enthusiasts’ activities at Stansted over the years. Nick was also an editor of a section of the Stansted Aviation Society magazine and has been a Stansted regular for 30 years+ and one other member of the party has been around even longer than me and worked at the airport for several years and was the very first member of the planewatch scheme.



On with the meeting outcomes…..

A burning question in recent months has been ‘why was the mound removed?’ well that came up in conversation quite quickly and the official reason that with the steep slopes and slippery mud was considered a safety hazard and MAG had a responsibility to keep their accessible areas safe for the public users therefore they decided it had to be flattened. That may not be the end of mound life as we know it though…. MAG have been looking at the feasibility of options to either reinstate the mound with a safer earth banks but there are (mainly) ecological issues to overcome and as such other alternative locations nearby may be looked at so at this stage although there is no absolute guarantee of a new mound, but we were very pleased to hear that MAG are actively investigating a possible replacement.

We discussed the remaining mound (near the large radar tower) and asked if that could be improved as an interim facility by raising it a bit and I also asked if they could remove the first 5 metres or so of the hedge on the west side of it to improve the view of 04 movements and taxiway G/holding point U. They took away those ideas and have already agreed to remove some of the hedge. They already understood a bit about the enthusiasts’ activities and needs and we did a bit of a presentation/explanation of the 3 types of enthusiasts (spotters, photographers and the casual plane watchers) which helped understand the needs of the various types. This will hopefully assist in getting something truly beneficial in due course. We did suggest one or two minor items which could help the existing viewpoints if they are willing and/or able to do them such as the hedge removal previously mentioned.



We were then presented with proposals to control enthusiasts who go into the northside business park where it’s fair to say the FBOs have suffered significantly from poor and unacceptable behaviour. A representative of one of the FBOs was present at the meeting and explained very well their operations and how intrusions by spotters and photographers can potentially affect their business. Importantly their clients like Stansted and normally get a good deal of privacy but that has been put at risk by a small minority and with 7 other airports offering similar services to these types of customer they fear that reoccurrences might drive them elsewhere, something that would severely affect them and of course us enthusiasts as it could reduce the biz-jet activity that currently seems to be thriving.



The new ‘rules’ will mean that spotting is restricted to the section of fence between Harrods terminal and Building 130 (Universal Aviation), all other areas will be out of bounds to enthusiasts. Note that this means that the short piece of fence between Universal’s wooden fence and the security gate which overlooks the Inflite apron are ‘out of bounds’.

The restrictions will be enforced by new signs warning that the areas are prohibited and as such only that section of fence will not have signs on it, they will remind us all of the byelaw 3(28) which states:

3(28) Fail to comply with signs etc

No person whether on foot or whilst driving or propelling a Vehicle shall neglect, fail or refuse to comply with an indication or direction given by a Constable or Airport Official or a Sign exhibited by or on behalf of the Airport Company

Access will also be restricted to hours of daylight and there may be temporary closures for protection of sensitive traffic. Cars should be parked in the short stay car park on first Avenue (main road as you drive in) on the left hand side

At present we don’t know the exact timescale for the erection of the signs but I’m sure they will be obvious one they are in place.

I’ve attached a plan to illustrate the permitted area, I hope it helps

Imagenorthside spotting limits.pub by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickr

andy
Andygolfer (or at least I was once), now just plane crazy

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Proud winner of 2019 Air-Britain photo competition!

co-owner of UK Light Aviation Enthusiasts google group https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/uklae
and Stansted Aviation Enthusiasts google group: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/stnae

my photos on Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/125470545@N07/

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andygolfer
Administrator, POTM, SPOTM & FC POTM winner
Posts: 8500
Joined: Sat Apr 30, 2011 11:51 am
Location: Rayne Essex - 12 miles east of Stansted

Re: my meeting with MAG & police re Stansted spotting facili

Post by andygolfer » Fri Mar 02, 2018 1:49 pm

The police and MAG have now erected the business park spotting signs (copy attached) all round northside except on the length of fence between Harrods and Universal and therefore that is the only section to be used for spotting. There is one on the fence next to Universals wooden fence between there and the security gate so they won’t be tolerating spotting along that line at all so please don’t walk from the ‘allowed’ fence to that area – basically it’s to keep spotters away from the view of people arriving or departing from Universal’s building.

Also they now want people to use the car park on First Avenue as stated previously and no longer use the lay-bys. It seems they have already had people leaving cars there and wandering away so felt that was best approach.

I'm waiting for clarification of the exact hours when access to northside will be permissible but it will be along the lines of 'hours of daylight'

Here is a copy of the sign, I trust that is clear enough to understand

Imagenorthside viewing sign by Andrew Goldsmith, on Flickr

many thanks for your anticipated co-operation

Andrew
Andygolfer (or at least I was once), now just plane crazy

Image
please support our photo competitions by entering and/or voting!
Proud winner of 2019 Air-Britain photo competition!

co-owner of UK Light Aviation Enthusiasts google group https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/uklae
and Stansted Aviation Enthusiasts google group: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/stnae

my photos on Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/125470545@N07/

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