LTNman
I would be interested to know the date of the item concerning Eastwoodbury Church on the SEN website and whereabouts it is on the site as I could not find it myself.
Briefly, as I understand it, the CAA considers the church an acceptable obstacle due to the fact that runway 06 now has an ILS and the threshold is further south-west than prior to the runway extension, making the church some 200m beyond the threshold. Perhaps the SEN website item refers to this work. It is news to me if the the airport and the CAA are now working on additional measures regarding the church and the date of that item would clarify the situation somewhat.
As far as homeowners receiving compensation for loss of house value resulting from the runway extension/increased activity is concerned, I personally don't have a problem with that at all. As has been pointed out it is their legal right to do so and I'm sure that Stobarts will have made provision for such payments it they are supported by firm evidence of loss of property value.
Those on here who have not followed the fortunes of SEN over the years can be forgiven for assuming that the runway extension came out of the blue only in the past four years or so. This is not the case as the plan to physically relocate the church and extend the runway goes back to 2001 and in the 1980 & 90s SEN played host to Electras and Viscounts etc. operating night mail/cargo flights with 30+ nightly movements at that time. Indeed, the joke at SEN then was that if the runway needed resurfacing it would be done during the day, not at night. So noise greater than is the case now was 'suffered' by its neighbours until quite recently and the prospect of it eventually becoming busier in general through expansion is nothing new.
Last edited by Expressflight; 18th Nov 2012 at 07:37.
Reason: date of proposed moving of church and runway extension added