Noise News
Below are links to stories about noise in relation to airports and aviation.
Farnborough airport consultation on hugely expanding its airspace, for questionable reasons
Farnborough airport is consulting on its plans to hugely increase the amount of airspace it controls. This will have considerable impacts on general aviation fliers and helicopters in the area, as they would not be able to fly in the new Farnborough airspace, as at present, but would have to make large detours and fly lower, causing more noise to those living nearby. The aim of the airspace grab by Farnborough is thought to be to speed up the arrival of departure of the private jets and business jets which are the users of Farnborough, so the very few passengers per plane (about 2.7 on average, on planes designed to take hugely more) are spared any small delay. The airport has had declining numbers of flights in recent years, and is nowhere near to its target number. It is therefore surprising that the airport feels the need for such a large increase in its controlled airspace.There are real fears that this is in preparation for Farnborough attempting to expand into commercial aviation. 'Sky grabbing' for future use for a much bigger operation? TAG could make a nice profit if it sells an airport with attached airspace!
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Birmingham Airport 6-month flight path trials – due to runway extension – to begin in May
It has been confirmed that controversial ‘alternative flight plans’ proposed by Birmingham Airport are to be trialled from May, for 6 months. Birmingham Airport has been developing an Airspace Change Proposal, required for a change to departure flight paths to the south of the Airport due to the runway extension. After considering two viable options in detail - and following extensive public consultations - the airport submitted its preferred route, Option 5, to the CAA in August 2013, saying it believed the overall environmental and operational attributes of both routes considered (Options 5 and 6) were 'very marginal'. Perhaps due to news about the fury that has been generated in the Warham area by a new Gatwick flight path trial, Birmingham airport has agreed to carry out trials of both options, in order to better understand the actual impact of the proposed changes rather than theoretical modelling. The proposals sparked outrage in the affected villages when they were revealed last year. A final decision is expected in spring 2015 and the airport has reiterated that the trials are 'not a further consultation'.
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Protest in Brussels as new flight paths over-fly new areas, giving some respite to those previously heavily over-flown
In Brussels there has, for a long time, been a problem because of the division between the French speaking south of the city, and the Flemish speaking north. The airport is to the north east of the city, and traditionally the people living to the north have complained bitterly that they have had a disproprotionate number of flights, while many affluent areas to the south have had no over-flying. From the 6th February the government has brought in new flight paths, which disperse take-offs towards the west, so more fly over the areas to the south of the city. Flights start at 6am and continue to 11pm, though the new routes are meant to not be used for Saturday evening and during Sunday, if there isn't a strong westerly wind. There has been huge protest in Brussels about this change, with furious citizens incensed that their peace, and their quality of life has been reduced. The changes have brought some relief to the other areas which previously took more than their fair share of the noise. Petitions and protests have been set up, and it is uncertain what will happen next. The situation is complicated by Belgian politics, and the separate interests of Flemish and Walloon sections of society.
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Gatwick’s 1st runway consultation exhibition – met with spirited opposition by those to be badly affected
Gatwick airport has started a period of 6 weeks of consultation on its plans for a 2nd runway. The consultation is something of a PR exercise, as the Airports Commission has only short listed the wide spaced runway option. Gatwick Airport is, for some reason best known to itself, including the narrow spaced runway (which it does not want) in the consultation options. There is a series of exhibitions planned, by Gatwick airport, in a number of towns and villages over the coming weeks, with the first today in Crawley - the town which might be the worst affected by a 2nd runway. There was spirited opposition by people fighting plans for a new runway, and especially those who have recently found themselves under a new "trial" flight path. Feedback from the exhibition was that it was well attended, by several hundred people, many of whom appeared to be against a new runway. One of their questions was how to fill in the forms, to clearly convey their opposition to any runway - there is just one box people can tick, on the last page, in Section D, "None of these options."
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Heathrow business case looks shaky if it had to give £100 million + per year noise compensation to households
Wandsworth Council leader Ravi Govindia says Heathrow’s business case is beginning to look very shaky. Heathrow's owners would have to spend £100 million every year to households around the airport if it is to match Gatwick’s new noise compensation offer. In its PR efforts to win over local opposition, Gatwick has offered to pay £1,000 each to existing homes inside a 57 decibel catchment around the airport, once (if) a 2nd runway is built. This would include 4,100 homes, and the cost would be £4.1 million per year. Wandsworth calculates payments on this scale would cost Heathrow about £100 million per year. Gatwick has also offered to pay up to 2,000 qualifying local households a one-off grant of up to £3,000 towards noise insulation. If Heathrow was to match the terms of this scheme it could cost the airport a further £210 million per year. M r Govindia said the Airports Commission must give proper consideration to the "real noise impact of an airport set in the most densely populated part of the country. ....Once you weigh the real environmental costs - and those for improved surface access - against the claimed benefits of an additional runway, Heathrow’s business case begins to look very shaky."
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New campaign group – CAGNE – formed to protest against Gatwick Airport noise
A new campaign group has formed in the Gatwick area, protesting against aircraft noise. Gatwick airport has been attempting to get good PR by claiming to do more than other airports to manage its aircraft noise. However, infuriated residents living under a newly created departures flight path have formed the new group, called Communities Against Gatwick Noise and Emissions (CAGNE). It already has more than 300 frustrated members across Sussex, who are particularly angry at new flightpaths, of which the airport deliberately gave no prior notice. People at the villages of Rusper and Warnham, west of Crawley - which used to be quiet - have been horrified to find themselves subjected to relentless aircraft noise. Sally Pavey, a CAGNE member, said: "This is bringing misery to thousands of people and destroying the tranquility of parts of Sussex. It is wrong that all we can do is telephone the answer phone at Gatwick Airport to complain. ....we do not know if each complaint will be logged separately or if our address is only logged once." CAGNE has launched an online petition calling on the DfT to stop the new flightpaths. The usual blandishment from the airport was that they "continue to take a responsible approach to noise reduction and mitigation."
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Gatwick hopes noise compensation pledge will help it win battle for a new runway
As competition hots up to persuade the Airports Commission, and ultimately Parliament, on their own cases for building a new runway, Gatwick and Heathrow have both stressed the importance of dealing with the aircraft noise issue, or at least hoping people believe they are dealing with it. Gatwick has committed to pay annual compensation of around £1,000 to local households most affected by aircraft noise should it receive approval for a 2nd runway. Heathrow, meanwhile, has pointed to a [dubious] survey it commissioned from Populus that aircraft noise is only the 7th most important aspect of a London airport for Londoners. The Gatwick scheme would only pay up when a new runway starts to be used, and might affect around 4,100 households inside the 57 db(A) Leq noise contour. The compensation would not be paid to new residents choosing to relocate to the area once the runway is built. Earlier Gatwick announced plans to offer hundreds of local homes up to £3,000 towards double glazing and loft insulation to mitigate aircraft noise. This level of payment if offered at Heathrow would be vastly more expensive, by several orders of magnitude.
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Penn Medicine researchers show how lost sleep might lead to lost brain neurons
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have found evidence that not getting enough sleep does actual harm to the brain. Instead of the usual solution of inadequate sleep, of trying to catch up on the hours when time permits, the Penn Medicine research indicates that chronic sleep loss may be more serious than previously thought and may even lead to irreversible physical damage to and loss of brain cells. It seems extended wakefulness is linked to injury to, and loss of, neurons that are essential for alertness and optimal cognition, the locus coeruleus (LC) neurons. There is a change in a protein linked to mitochondrial energy production in the cells. The research is published in the prestigious Journal of Neuroscience. The research so far is in mice, and involved normal rest, short wakefulness, or extended wakefulness. In humans there is some earlier evidence that attention span and several other aspects of cognition may not normalize even with 3 days of recovery sleep, after sleep deprivation, raising the question of lasting injury in the brain. Researchers say more work needs to be done to establish whether a similar phenomenon occurs in humans and to determine what durations of wakefulness place individuals at risk of neural injury.
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John Stewart blog: “Doing nothing about noise at Heathrow is not an option”
In a blog for HACAN, John Stewart considers the aircraft noise problem for people living at Brockley, in south east London, some 20 miles away from Heathrow. They suffer from planes over head every 2 minutes for much of each day, at around 4,500 feet. But they are not considered conventionally to have an aircraft noise problem. After speaking at a meeting in Brockley about the noise, and then visiting the headquarters of NATS to see their air traffic control systems, John was struck by the lights on the screens illustrating just how many planes affect people far from Heathrow. More than one million people live within 20 miles of Heathrow, along those approach paths. Around a third of those – the people living closer to Heathrow – get a half day’s break when the planes change runways at 3pm. The rest, like Brockley, get no such relief.. John says his visit to NATS "showed me that doing something is difficult" .... "doing nothing about noise at Heathrow is not an option".... perhaps a solution would be "for planes to join the approach path much closer to Heathrow." ..."I didn’t ask NATS about the impact of a third runway at Heathrow. I didn’t really need to. If 480,000 flights a year severely restrict NATS' room for manoeuvre, 740,000 would light up the air traffic controller’s screen with a brightness yet unseen."
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Manston airport now consulting on its draft Noise Action Plan
Airports are required to draw up Noise Action Plans: "It is a DEFRA requirement that all UK airports prepare a Noise Action Plan (NAP) based on 2011 noise maps. These regulations are a result of the European Directive commonly known as the Environmental Noise Directive (END)." Bickerdike Allen Partners have been retained by Manston Airport to prepare a NAP, and this will require consultation with the Airport's Consultative Committee and the wider public. The consultation lasts 6 weeks between 14th March and 4th July 2014. Following consultation the plan will be finalised and submitted to the Government. Unfortunately Bickerdike Allen Partners produced a noise report for Manston in 2012, which was found to have seriously under-stated the noise nuisance from Manston. The current report also contains inaccuracies and omissions. The community group, No NIght Flights at Manston, urge residents to take part in the consultation and warn: "If you live under or near the flight path, please remember that these people do not have your best interests at heart." Those troubled by aircraft noise have found airport Noise Action Plans to be high on words, and worthy statements of good intent, but low on any real actions or targets to genuinely reduce aircraft noise