HC Deb 04 December 1987 vol 123 cc743-4W
Mr. Soames

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many complaints he has received since 1 January 1987 about aircraft noise at Gatwick.

Mr. Peter Bottomley

1,947 between 1 January and 30 November.

Mr. Soames

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will publish the results of his Departments monitoring of aircraft noise at night at Gatwick airport in 1985 and 1986.

Mr. Peter Bottomley

The table shows the number of infringements of the night noise limit of 102 perceived noise decibels for subsonic jets on take-off from Gatwick. The noise is monitored by Gatwick Airport Limited at four noise monitoring points. Information on infringements is given to the airport consultative committee and to the airlines.

Number of infringements Percentage of total jet departures
1985 39 1.07
1986 11 0.26

The Department has also commissioned a survey of night noise in the vicinity of the airport year by year, starting with summer 1987. The results of the first survey will not be ready for some time. We shall make the results of this and future surveys available in the form of noise contours, as explained in our consultation paper on proposals for night flights at Gatwick from 1 April 1988.