Heathrow expansion noise policy

In responding to the Government consultation on a draft  Heathrow airport expansion national policy statement (HENPS), the IOA have drawn attention to areas where clarity and consistency are required in noise policy. We highlight a number of technical noise policy points, where the draft HENPS is inconsistent with the Noise Policy Statement for England (NPSE), a longstanding golden thread through policy, and decision-making precedent: For example, it has been established in decision-making at least since 2014 that avoiding significant adverse impacts on health and quality of life relies on all available mitigation measures to be available for use, including noise insulation. As currently drafted, the avoidance of significant adverse impacts only to the use of quieter aircraft and operating procedures. IOA state that without reference to noise insulation as well as all other mitigation brought forward by a proposal (e.g. quieter aircraft technology, land use planning, noise abatement operating procedures, and noise-related operating restrictions), the requirements of paragraph 5.55, the new decision making test for noise, could not be met by any major UK airport and the vast majority of regional airports. 

The IOA very much welcome recent major research studies commissioned for government, both of which will make significant contributions to the global pool of research into the effects of aircraft noise For ANNE and  We look forward to seeing Part 2, relating to objective sleep disturbance as well as the full study report, and trust government will consult with the IOA and others prior to using this study to update policy on night noise. The ANAS study is welcomed as providing an extensive and valuable survey of daytime noise annoyance across 10 UK airports.As such it will provide a major contribution to our understanding of aircraft noise annoyance at the time of the survey using that particular survey methodology. However, we feel there are such major differences between the circumstances, survey methods and reported levels of annoyance compared to the previous SONA survey in 2014 that, at the current time it is not possible to compare the two studies to discuss if or how annoyance may have changed.

For our full comments see:

Institute of Acoustics: Response to Consultations