'Half Million Will Suffer Deafening Super-Airport Noise

New report slates government papers as flawed and misleading.

Serious flaws in the government report on noise levels expected at Europes largest airport proposed for the Midlands are revealed in a private investigation made public today. The government report says 14,000 residents might suffer from excessive noise.

The independent investigation, led by a prominent Leamington surveyor, has found that more than 500,000 people are likely to be harmed by the deafening roar of two flights a minute at the superairport.

The report backs enormous opposition to the plan to build the airport on lush and historic farmlands beside Rugby, in Warwickshire. Local protest meetings are gathering strength for intensive campaigning in the 49 days left to the end of the consultation period.

One protest website reports that 22,000 have signed a petition against the airport. And at the Stop the Avon Valley Airport site, http://www.stopavonvalleyairport.org.uk">http://www.stopavonvalleyairport.org.ukan overwhelming percentage of pollsters also say no to the airport plan.

The surveyor, Mr Jeffrey Elliott, a parish councillor of Leamington Hastings, in Warwickshire, has discovered how bureaucrats hid the real figures so dramatically.

The official level of jet-noise set by World Health Organisation investigators is a thunderous 50 to 55dBA. But British officials have chosen to change that by choosing a level up to 7dBA higher, or noisier.

The result of what on paper seems a small alteration causes a massive distortion.

Mr Elliotts investigation found another twist to the proposals too. The residential areas covered in the estimate allow for only two major approaches and departures, with the huge hub-airport aligned north-east and south-west. But the Department of Transport says that the angle of the runways is not definite.

He says this uncertainty is to divide neighbouring communities that would squabble before public enquiries over who had to suffer thunderous overflights. The public enquiry process will be exhausting, demoralising, and ultimately futile since the emphasis will be on minor alterations to the layout," he said.

The sheer scale of the airport proposal - the largest airport in Europe, fifty per cent larger than Heathrow - means that aircraft noise would significantly impact on communities way beyond Rugby and its surrounding villages.

The three runways would be capable of handling 560,000 air transport movements a year, with a peak time capacity of two flights a minute," Mr Elliott said. The largest passenger and the noisiest cargo planes would use it, and most likely Concorde, too."

Mr Elliott explained, The World Health Organisation says fifty to fifty-five dBAs is the level that constitutes annoyance for a community. The Transport Department appraisal of the noise impact is based on the assumption that a noise level of fifty-seven dBA represents the onset of community annoyance.

The consultation paper estimates that an additional area of 227 square kilometres falls within the fifty-four dBA contour, affecting a further 33,000 people.

This does not give a fair picture. The use of average equivalent noise levels is a misleading device designed to play down the effects."

Mr Elliott, critical of the poor quality of charted noise contours, mapped it thoroughly and then discovered the huge numbers whose peace and hearing will be harmed.

The estimated sixty dBA contour encloses a massive area, possibly affecting in excess of 500,000 people."

Mr Elliotts maps show which towns will suffer. In flights operating to the west, these include Barford, Bishops Tachbrook, Harbury, Bishops Itchington, Gaydon, Fenny Compton, Warmington, Cropredy, Southam, Priors Hardwick, and Priors Marston.

Flights towards and from the east will trouble Wolvey, Nuneaton, Hinckley, South Leicester, Blaby, Broughton Astley, Ullesthorpe, Lutterworth, Stanford on Avon, and Crick.

Mr Elliott believes between eight and ten stacks" will be used for aircraft waiting to land, over Banbury for westerly approaches and over Leicester and Market Harborough for approaches from the east. Applying techniques used at Heathrow, he estimates that more stacking would extend over Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire and Buckinghamshire.

The area affected would be vast, consistent with one of the largest airports in the world," he warns.

Associated website http://www.stopavonvalleyairport.org.uk">http://www.stopavonvalleyairport.org.uk

For more information :
Gordon Hutchison
The Lawn
Rugby Borough Council
Newbold RD
Rugby
CV21 2LG
Tel: 01788 834700
e-mail mailto:noairport@rugby.gov.uk