aircraft noise
I write in response to the pilot who has been critical of the residents who complain about noise under the Heathrow flight path. I write as the Chairman of HACAN ClearSkies, the body which represents these residents.
Of course some people who have moved into their homes in recent years complain about the noise, but they form a very small minority of our members. Most of our members fall into three categories:
1. A small number of older people who have lived in their homes since before the airport was built.
2. A much larger group who moved into their homes 15-25 years ago. They new about the airport. They made the concsious decision that they could put up with the noise as it was then. What has changed over the last 25 years is that individual planes have become quieter, but the number of planes has increased greatly. It is the number of aircraft passing over their heads that really disrturbs them. The other factor to consider here is the fact that government promised that each new development - Terminal3, Terminal 4 and Terminal 5 - would be the last. A good number of our members believed those and decised not to move. Now they feel badly let down by successive governments.
3. A group of people who have joined us over the last 6 or 7 years. These are people who live much further from the airport. We now have members from Greenwich in the east to Henely in the west and Finsbury Park and Mile End in the north. The vast majority of these people moved into their homes before aircraft noise became a problem in their area. What has happened, as many of you will know, over the last few years is that much greater use has been made of flight paths further away from Heathrow: the number of planes using the airport has meant that aircraft tend to be brough in in wider arcs.
Acording to the 2002 GLA London Household Survey 6% of Londoners raircraft noise as a "serious" problem in their lives. That is around 400,000 people.