§ Mr. WyattTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on the level of monitoring for gun explosions at Shoeburyness. [110232]
§ Dr. MoonieThis is a matter for the Chief Executive of the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency. I have asked the Chief Executive to write to my hon. Friend.
Letter from Sir John Chisholm to Mr. Derek Wyatt, dated 21 February 2000:
I have been asked to reply to your parliamentary question about monitoring for gun explosions at Shoeburyness since the range is part of the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA).730WA system of acoustic monitoring of the activities at the range has been in place for over 10 years. There are 7 sensors in fixed sites around the Thames Estuary that allow remote recordings to be relayed to a central computer system. Live data containing noise levels and date/time information is fed into the operations room at Shoeburyness where it is displayed graphically for ease of interpretation. In the unlikely event that the noise levels exceed the guideline limits, work will be suspended.The prevailing weather conditions are also taken into account. An acoustic prediction programme is run to determine the likely propagation of noise levels. If the forecast appears unfavourable and likely to lead to noise levels exceeding the guideline limit, the work will be rescheduled.I hope this explains the situation.