Noise News
Below are links to stories about noise in relation to airports and aviation.
Rural communities complain of ‘airport blight’ as flights increase
Rural communities are complaining that their lives are being blighted by the increasing number of flights at small airfields. The surge has led to complaints of excessive noise from residents who say their quiet idyll has been disturbed. This is because the 2003 ATWP recommended that traffic at smaller airfields increase to take pressure of larger airports in the South East. Wycombe Air Park now has nearly 100,000 air movements a year. (Telegraph)
Click here to view full story...
Campaigners ask government to take control of air traffic at Wycombe Air Park
Noise pollution campaigners have asked the government to step in and take direct control of air traffic at Wycombe Air Park. Wycombe Air Park Action Group, which was formed last year by residents angry about noisy planes, has lodged an application with Geoff Hoon for the DfT for 'specification’ of the air park in accordance with the Civil Aviation Act. If successful air traffic from the site will be regulated by the DfT and CAA. (Bucks free press)
Click here to view full story...
It’s back to the drawing board for proposed TCN airspace changes
The airspace change proposal for TCN put out to consultation by NATS a year ago is being taken back to the drawing board after an overwhelming thumbs down. NATS’ plans to conduct a new consultation later this year were revealed in a letter sent to SSE. The proposal to change aircraft stacking areas, arrival and departure routes up to 2014 caused uproar across Essex, Herts, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire because of the threats posed to rural tranquility. (SSE)
Click here to view full story...
Aircraft engine makers flying into a brighter future
Pratt & Whitney is pressing ahead with its "geared turbofan" (GTF). This new engine was shown in public for the first time last week in Toulouse, where it has been undertaking flight trials with Airbus. Also called open rotor engines. The GTF has a gear-box that slows down the fan at the front of the engine. This lets the high-temperature gas turbine at its heart run faster and more efficiently than on a conventional turbofan - but more noisily. (Sunday Times)
Click here to view full story...
Residents: we were right on Belfast City Airport noise
Residents in east Belfast have said that the latest noise report on Belfast City Airport proves what they have been saying - increasing numbers of large aircraft are pushing up the noise levels. The number of people living within the 54dB contour has increased from 12,084 in summer 2007 to 18,859 this summer, while the population within the 57dB contour has more than doubled. The noise has increased due to more European destinations. (UK Airport News)
Click here to view full story...
Call for residents to register Gatwick airport noise
An anti-noise campaigner from Hever is encouraging anybody who is blighted by the sound of Gatwick bound planes to register their views with a Government department. David Baron, founder of the Gatwick Anti-Noise Group (GANG), is keen for residents to take part in a consultation on airport noise being carried out by DEFRA. Comments will be taken into consideration when DEFRA forms its guidelines on airport noise. Deadline 28th Nov. (This is Kent)
Click here to view full story...
DEFRA opens consultation on airport action plans to address aircraft noise
The UK’s Environment Minister, Jonathan Shaw, has called for views on how noise from English airports can be managed effectively and issued for comment draft guidance for action plans that airport operators must draw up on measures they will take to manage and, where appropriate, reduce the level of noise impact on local communities. This follows on from an EU directive of 2002. The deadline is 28th Nov, and Shaw urges anyone with an interest to respond. (GreenAir)
Click here to view full story...
(Belfast) Class ‘disrupted’ by plane noise
A survey of schools in the flight path of George Best Belfast City Airport reports disruption of classes and outdoor play time. But the airport says the report is scaremongering and it has not received complaints from any schools. Belfast City Airport Watch is calling on the Environment Minister to take urgent action following the results of its survey which it claims reveals that aircraft noise is causing problems for many Belfast schools. (BBC)
Click here to view full story...
Noise Levels Used to Assess Health Impacts of Airports Too High?
With the publication today of the DEFRA consultation on guidance for Noise Action Planning for Airport Operators – Environmental Protection UK are reminding operators and Government that assessment of the impact of aviation noise on people must be based on robust research. The ANASE report and work commissioned for HACAN found that increasingly people are annoyed below the 57 dB(A) contours. (Environmental Protection)
Click here to view full story...
Airport expansion scuppers housing scheme
Two appeals involving the development of land close to Birmingham international airport have failed because of the potential for future occupiers to be harmed by aircraft noise. The schemes would have involved the construction of 16 apartments and between 55 and 57 houses. An inspector ruled that in 2030 the whole of the appeal site would be subject to a level of noise exposure where planning permission should not normally be given. (Planning Daily)