Originally Posted by
LTNman
The same argument could be applied to someone buying a house that backs onto a country lane. The road is upgraded to an A road so the traffic and noise on that road then becomes intrusive. Should those affected residents not “moan” because the lane was there first?
I'm sure that you know the history of SEN far better than you are admitting to. Your analogy is thus way off the mark.
For example in the period between the 1960s and 1990s SEN was very much noisier and the number of night flights was limited(!) to 900 per month. Passenger flights became fewer over that 30 year period but freight grew considerably. In the 1980s/90s there were often around 30 nightly freight movements and SEN was quite a hub for night freight aircraft such as the Electra, all of which used Taxiway Charlie for either departure or arrival. Was it a 'country lane' then?
The modest runway extension has allowed larger aircraft to be used since 2013 but that had no effect on the noise levels in Wells Avenue
apart from when Charlie was withdrawn due to having too low a PCN. Only when Charlie was rebuilt and its bends were smoothed out did that noise nuisance return to affect those residents who, understandably had become accustomed to the quieter situation. I don't blame them for complaining; after all it is their right to do so and the airport should, in my view, make reasonable adjustments to mollify them. They did this by holding aircraft further East on Charlie until line up clearance was given, by offering to build an earth bund or other sound-reducing fencing and usage restrictions on Charlie as has been mentioned.
One of the worst affected properties is 123, Wells Avenue. This doesn't seem to have changed hands since 1995 until it was sold in February 2020 for £266,000. It would be interesting to see what price it was placed on the market but I cannot find that information.