Representation by Jennifer Marguerite Monaco
- Date submitted
- 12 June 2023
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
Below are my initial registration comments only. They relate to health and safety issues associated with increasing aircraft numbers and are based on the present noise volumes of currently engineered aircraft and the location of the airport. I would wish to add to these as and when the opportunity arises. 1. Increases in noise from aircraft taking off : There has been a significant increase in aircraft noise affecting me in my home in Breachwood Green (BWG) over recent years, and particularly over the past year or two. For example, there have been: - increases in aircraft taking off over BWG at all hours of the day and night (much noisier than landings). There now seem to be almost as many aircraft taking off over the village as there are landings. - increases in aircraft taking off over BWG early in the morning and late at night. - continuation of excessively noisy old (obsolete?) aircraft, taking off over BWG every night without fail - not seasonal - between the hours of midnight to 5 am. Comment on help with noise insulation costs offered by the Airport: So-called 'mitigating' offers by the Airport authorities of help with insulation for the worst-affected homes are of little use if you wish to sleep with your bedroom window open, particularly as there are no barriers - natural or man-made - to minimise noise when your village is located on top of a hill, like BWG is. Any increase in aircraft numbers would simply exacerbate what is already a hugely disruptive factor in the lives of people who simply want to get on with their lives without being continuously dominated by aircraft noise and associated increases in traffic on the country lanes. 2. Increases in mental and physical health issues affecting local inhabitants: Increased noise, aircraft emissions, light pollution, and people traveling by road to/from the airport using surrounding villages like BWG as short-cuts, will all take their toll on the mental and physical health and well-being of all local inhabitants. People will have their sleep and everyday activities increasingly affected by greater volumes of aircraft and motor vehicles using the surrounding country lanes which are largely single-track. Has anyone done any research into, or considered monitoring, such impacts and what to do if the outcomes show a significant decline in the health of people living in the surrounding areas? 3.Safety issues 3.1. Accidents involving aircraft: Aircraft are often banked up circulating over the village and surrounds, waiting for clearance to land. At peak times, when aircraft activity is particularly busy - with one aircraft landing approximately every two minutes - aircraft coming in to land sometimes have to take emergency measures and ascend at the last minute - apparently because other aircraft on the ground have not moved out of the way sufficiently quickly. Whatever the reason, however, rapid acceleration like this creates a great deal of noise when you are on the ground beneath the aircraft and is also quite frightening. This kind of thing - and indeed any increase in traffic volume generally - makes the risk of an accident - whether in the air or on the ground - more likely. 3.2. Threats from hostile agents: Breachwood Green and its surrounds are surrounded by open countryside, with a few wooded areas and similar. If any individual or group was really intent on causing harm from the ground to incoming and outgoing aircraft when they are in flight, it would not be difficult to figure out how this could be achieved and how easy it could be to get away from the area undetected if you knew the roads, tracks, and footpaths well. A couple of uniformed policemen taking a stroll along a nearby footpath or an occasional patrol along the lanes by a marked police vehicle is hardly a deterrent.