Noise Policy Options for Farnborough Airport – Presentation on work carried out by Hepworth Acoustics for Rushmoor Council

Peter Hepworth

Thursday 31st October 2013

Scope of Presentation

• Brief

• Data sources

• Areas considered

• Recommendations for consideration

• Conclusions

Brief

• Assess current controls and consider options for future planning controls:-

• minimise the impact of noise and disturbance on the surrounding area

• control movements, particularly at weekends and bank holidays

• address the impact that the frequency of flight movements and individual flight events can have on the quality of life of local residents

Brief

• The assessment of possible controls of noise impact to be carried out ‘whilst balancing this with the economic benefits that the airport brings’

• Reference to be made to National Planning and Aviation Policy frameworks

Data sources

• Literature Review :-

• National Aviation and Planning Policies

• Existing Farnborough Airport Policies and Controls

• Other UK airport controls

• Worldwide airport controls

Data sources

• National Aviation and Planning Policies

• Little current national planning policy on aircraft noise

• Aviation Policy Framework produced in 2013

• Airports Commission Paper on aircraft noise produced in 2013

Data sources

• Existing Farnborough Airport Policies and Controls

• Planning conditions

• Controls in the Section 106 agreement

• Farnborough Airport Noise Action Plan

Data sources

• Other Airport Policies and Controls

• Planning conditions for UK Airports

• Noise Action Plans for UK Airports

• UK Aeronautical Information Package

• Boeing website ‘Airports with Noise and emissions Restrictions’ (contains 650 international airports)

• Airport websites and published papers

Areas considered

• Is the approach of a restriction of movement numbers and a noise budget still appropriate or are alternatives better ?

• How can a review procedure be incorporated in to the control mechanism?

• Advantages and disadvantages of policies to protect amenity of residents whilst providing future capacity for growth at the airport.

• Control of weekend/bank holiday noise

• Subjective assessment tools

Areas considered

• Noise envelopes suggested in Aviation Policy Framework

• Consideration of changes to future operating hours and differential movement limits

• Maximum daily movement limits

• Operational hours at other UK airports

• Frequency of movements

• Monitoring of noise limits for aircraft

Areas considered

• Alternative noise limit schemes

• Recalculation of noise contours for baseline review

• Possibilities for tightening the baseline

• Use of LAeq noise units and other options for describing noise impact

Recommendations for consideration

• Primary noise controls to remain movement limits and noise budget contours

• Noise budget contours to be recalculated to take account of changes in calculation methodology or operational procedures

• Any future increase in movement limits to lead to smaller LAeq contours

Recommendations for consideration

• No changes to be made to operational hours

• Daily movement limit for weekends and bank holidays

• Maximum noise limits to be set for large and smaller aircraft with reporting of results

• Commitment from airport to phase out aircraft that do not meet the latest ICAO noise standards within a given time period

Recommendations for consideration

• No additional recommendations to control ‘subjective’ aspects

• Any future planning applications to include further information on noise aspects, such as N70 contours

• Further work to be carried out on assessing most appropriate aircraft noise limits and reporting methodology

Conclusions

• Farnborough Airport has a comprehensive range of existing controls

• In some controls, Farnborough airport leads the world e.g. banning Chapter 3 aircraft

• The current controls provide a good methodology for future controls with appropriate revisions and updating

Conclusions

• Some additional controls are recommended

• The recommendations provide a methodology for protecting/improving residential amenity and accommodating some future growth of airport operations