The London Assembly believes night flights into Heathrow should be reduced to an absolute minimum or banned altogether.

Members of the Assembly's Health and Environment Committee think that late planes should come in to land from the west, as this would reduce the number of noisy aircraft flying over the top of London when people are trying to sleep.

At the moment, around 70 per cent of planes arrive from the east due to favourable wind conditions and around 15 services land at the facility each night between 23:30 and 06:00 BST.

As well as altering flight paths, the committee urged Heathrow bosses to reduce the airport's overall "noise footprint", especially in areas where sound levels surpass the 40 decibels mark.

Chair of the Health and Environment Committee Murad Qureshi believes that landing more planes from the west would "share the noise burden more equally".

"It is unacceptable that thousands of Londoners are unable to get a good night's sleep because of planes flying over the capital," Qureshi remarked.

Heathrow is hardly out of the news at the moment, as the debate over extending the airport's runway capacity rumbles on.