All residents moved near Gatwick knowing a large airport was there and it would steadily expand over the years.
I guess their "sin" too was to believe the BAA when it undertook not to build a second runway for forty years, just as we idiots who live near LHR believed the undertakings made with respect to T5 at the time of the enquiry!
Now, I'm certainly not a NIMBY; as an aviation enthusiast quite the opposite in fact - Bring em on, I say! - but I am appalled when large public sector bodies make extensive promises in order to get what they want without having the slightest intention to keep to them if it proves to be inconvenient.
And I'm still not really convinced that we ought to want or have London as a major European aviation hub if it means in the future that the it is the UK that takes the CO2 hit for all those Americans, continentals and others that will be merely "passing through". That's going to get rather expensive.....