§ Lord Colnbrookasked Her Majesty's Government:
What progress is being made in installing a permanent noise and track keeping system at Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted airports.
§ The Minister of State, Department of Transport (Lord Brabazon of Tara)I am delighted to announce that BAA have now committed themselves to purchasing a system that should be installed by early Autumn. The system will be one of the most modern in the world, and will have considerable flexibility in the ways it can be used. It will be used to enforce noise 19WA and track requirements and also to provide a lot more information about the performance of aircraft and their impact on surrounding communities.
The noise monitoring will be carried out by a total of 36 noise monitors. There will be 12 fixed noise monitors in total at the three airports, primarily to monitor noise against predetermined limits, and 24 mobile monitors that can be deployed to collect data on aircraft noise from any area near the airports. The monitors will be able to record the noise made by inividual aircraft and will also be able to store data so that it can be analysed in a variety of ways. This will enable a review of noise limits to be carried out at the three airports with a view to introducing tougher limits more appropriate to modern aircraft. The noise monitoring installation should be completed by the early summer.
The track monitoring will require provision of radar data feed to the system. I understand that this should be available so as to allow installaton of the track monitoring by early Autumn. Again, the system will be able to identify the tracks followed by individual aircraft as well as to allow analysis of track data in different ways. This will be used to improve the accuracy with which aircraft follow noise preferential routes from the airports.
I am pleased to report that BAA are keen to involve local people through the local airport consultative committees in considering how best to use the system. It has great potential for ensuring that aircraft are operated in a way that minimizes noise nuisance for surrounding communities. But the most effective use of the system will only be developed with experience: the contribution from local people and from the airlines to that development will be invaluable.