LETTER: Truly unbearable noise of aircraft

We live on a 13th century farm in the parish of Warnham and life in the last few weeks has become truly unbearable for me and my family. We are being woken up just after 6am by exceptionally noisy, low flying aircraft flying directly over head. This carries on all day and into the night.
By The Newsroom
Published 23rd Mar 2014, 06:00 BST
Your lettersYour letters
Your letters

We moved to Warnham seven years ago for peace and quiet and to enjoy country life and we are devastated to learn that Gatwick Airport is trialling the airspace directly over our farm as a 4th potential route.

We have had no warning of this and we are very upset at this prospect. Warnham is a conservation area with wildlife which are noise sensitive to aircraft (barn owls and bats) as well many listed buildings. These listed buildings (including my own) are unable to make noise protection improvements due to listing requirements.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

We have never been bothered by aircraft before, despite our proximity to Gatwick, other than the odd plane due to weather conditions. Recently we had some respite due to the weather and the difference was immediate. Alas I was awoken at 6am this morning (March 14) by a large low flying loud aircraft directly above my house and this has been the case every 5-10 minutes all morning.

I think it is unacceptable that a large corporation can be allowed to make a whole community’s way of life miserable without any warning for the sake of profit, which is the only thing that Gatwick gain from this trial.

Gatwick is no longer responding to the hundreds of complaints. The letter it originally sent showed the new flight path to be in a different location compared with what is happening in practice, which is underhand. It also showed the aircraft to be flying about 4,000ft, which is certainly not the case in practice.

JACQUI BIRCH

Dorking Road, Warnham

Related topics:WarnhamGatwick Airport