Mr. John D. TaylorTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence what criteria are used for the provision of helicopter noise insulation grants to houses in the vicinity of RAF Cottesmore, Leicestershire.
§ Mr. Archie HamiltonThere are no helicopters based at RAF Cottesmore. The noise insulation grant scheme in operation is based on fixed-wing flying.
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Mr. John D. TaylorTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence what criteria are used for the provision of helicopter noise insulation grants to houses in the vicinity of the helicopter landing site at Bessbrook, County Armagh.
§ Mr. Archie HamiltonHouseholders in the vicinity of the helicopter landing site at Bessbrook are eligible for noise insulation grants if their homes are subject to noise levels of 70dB(A) averaged over a 12-hour period. The contour which determines the boundaries of the scheme was originally predicted by computer model. Subsequent on-site noise measurements by the university of Ulster, which followed the normal convention of counting the total number of movements in a 24-hour period within the 12-hour average, produced a contour of smaller radius. Nevertheless the computer-predicted contour remains as the boundary for the noise insulation grant scheme.