I lived near Bedford for about 27 years. My house was roughly under the point where people intercept the glidescope for R22 at Cranfield, we had all sorts of planes doing endless circuits out of Thurleigh (I remember a Hercules flying low and slow for hours at a time) and for a while airships humming over head. I loved it! Summer evenings, sitting in the garden watching the planes do their thing. It is probably this that has eventually inspired me to fly myself.
In recent years, Thurleigh has closed; the airships are no more; and things are much quieter. I worked nights for a while - you become hypersensitive to noise when you're trying to sleep during the day. The aircraft just didn't register at all. I just don't buy the noise argument at all - unless you live right next to the airport. The noises that are a nuisance are: dogs barking, sodding church bells, car horns, car races, people talking (well, shouting) on the way home from the pub, kids doing just about anything, lorries reversing (especially those with the immensely irritating and patronising "warning, vehicle reversing" announcements, and last and by no means least lawnmowers. You don't hear anyone suggesting that we should ban dogs/churches/cars/pubs/children/lorries/grass/gardens. Whew! Glad to get that off my chest!