The House of Commons have written a briefing paper on Aviation Noise. There are three important points brought out in this. The first is that "There was no evidence of a 'step' or threshold in annoyance at any noise level. People were concerned about noise at even low levels (LAeq below 50dB)".

The second is that "People are much more concerned about noise at night (and to a lesser extent early mornings and late evenings) – the value they place on avoiding noise at night was almost double that of day time noise".

The third point made was that "The number of aircraft was also an important factor even at the same LAeq level."

Read the full paper here.

East Surrey MP Sam Gyimah welcomed the recent Government announcement that a new taskforce is to be set up to explore how best to secure the successful future of aviation in the Southeast, but warned that it could only be a real success if it took on board local concerns as well as those of the aviation industry.

Critically Gyimah recognised the noise issue saying 'Whilst it is good to see some consumer and environmental representation on the taskforce, a more even balance must be struck to ensure that local concerns – including over issues such as noise pollution – are at the front of the taskforce's mind when deciding on future capacity policy'

Read the full article here.