Airport noise complaints come from further afield
People living next to airport less likely to protest, says report
HEATHROW Airport has released statistics suggesting people living under the flight path in west London made fewer noise complaints than those living further afield in the first quarter of this year.
In Hounslow, Hillingdon and Ealing 126 residents collectively recorded 352 complaints between January and March 2015.
Of these figures, 248 complaints came from 86 people in Hounslow, 20 reports were made by 12 people in Hillingdon and 84 complaints came from 28 people living in Ealing.
Rob Gray, Back Heathrow Campaign coordinator said: “The idea that millions of people are seriously affected by aircraft noise is the cornerstone of the antiexpansion case, but these astonishing figures show beyond doubt that the reality is very different.
“Only 762 residents across London complained about Heathrow noise earlier this year, but 100,000 residents living in local communities around the UK’s hub airport back our campaign for its expansion.”
The latest noise numbers showed the airport received a total of 25,389 complaints, made by 1,676 people, in the first three months of this year. Windsor and Maidenhead recorded the highest number of noise reports with 6,323 complaints made by 285 people.
However, the largest number of residents to make noise were from Richmond, with 348 people making complaints.
From the total figure, there were 784 new complainants (people who contacted Heathrow for the first time between January and March 2015) who recorded 2,095 complaints.
This shows that nearly half of the people who complained this quarter had not done previously, and were responsible for just over eight per cent of the total number of complaints.
John Stewart, chairman of anti-expansion pressure group HACAN, said: “The high number of complaints still reflect the impact of the recent trials, but this should not hide the fact that Heathrow noise continues to disturb a lot of people from Windsor and beyond in the west to Greenwich in the east”.
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