Topic: Redlands Airfield

[Romulus]

The end is in sight, although it is not soon enough. After many ruined days caused by the continuous overflying of our homes and gardens it is with no sadness that I say good riddance.

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[Terry Reynolds]

when they have replaced it with houses, please don't moan about the increase in vehicle traffic on your roads......

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[the gorgon]

I know plenty of people who'll be glad to see the back of it. If you've ever been in an East Swindon garden on an otherwise lovely day and heard the horrid drone you'll know what I mean. It's far worse than the jets or hercules flying overhead as the noise from them is quickly gone, whereas the drone just goes on and on and on and on.................


People bang on about pollution but forget about noise pollution, and those planes are like massive mosquitoes.  Redlands airfield or however many houses? Where's my spade I'll help them dig foundations.

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[Muggins]

And its too late for some people who had their lives well and truly up-turned by it. We never di figure out how they got away with it.

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[Geoff Reid]

I know plenty of people who'll be glad to see the back of it. If you've ever been in an East Swindon garden on an otherwise lovely day and heard the horrid drone you'll know what I mean. It's far worse than the jets or hercules flying overhead as the noise from them is quickly gone, whereas the drone just goes on and on and on and on.................


People bang on about pollution but forget about noise pollution, and those planes are like massive mosquitoes.  Redlands airfield or however many houses? Where's my spade I'll help them dig foundations.

Are you referring to a single, specific plane, (the one used for ferrying parachutists aloft), or many planes ?

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[Terry Reynolds]

was the licence for the airfield issued yesterday??

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[Tobes]

I'm a big supporter of aviation - always have been. I don't really think of the noise of an aircraft as being necessarily any more (and generally much less) annoying than the whine of a power-saw or angle grinder, the roar of a combine harvester, the banging of rook-scarers or shotguns or any other number of noises; as long as its within limited set hours and comes as part and parcel of someone earning a crust. That its something as visually appealing as parachutists too seems all the more of a reason to think about it differently to me.

Like Terry says, I'd sooner live near an area of open land which is occasionally noisey  than yet another high-density development with all that will entail.

Lets await a deluge of ticky-tack one and two-bedroomed faux cottages, no investment into the local road network or sewerage services... and see if people are happy with the trade? 

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[Phil Chitty]

Looks like the complainers have done the landowners a big £££favour.

It also looks like they have helped open up the east of the 419 to the detriment of everyone who lives there.

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[Tobes]

Looks like the complainers have done the landowners a big £££favour.

It also looks like they have helped open up the east of the 419 to the detriment of everyone who lives there.

... ironic, isn't it...?

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[Muggins]

East of the A419 was doomed long before this.

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[Jean]

Development east goes back to 1968 and the so-called 'Silver Book' that was a study for urban expansion to accommodate what was estimated to be a population of 250,000 by the end of the last century.

The orange areas on the map below indicate the proposed growth areas. Please note that the Front Garden and Coate were protected!!



 

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[the gorgon]

I'm a big supporter of aviation - always have been. I don't really think of the noise of an aircraft as being necessarily any more (and generally much less) annoying than the whine of a power-saw or angle grinder, the roar of a combine harvester, the banging of rook-scarers or shotguns or any other number of noises; as long as its within limited set hours and comes as part and parcel of someone earning a crust. That its something as visually appealing as parachutists too seems all the more of a reason to think about it differently to me.

Like Terry says, I'd sooner live near an area of open land which is occasionally noisey  than yet another high-density development with all that will entail.

Lets await a deluge of ticky-tack one and two-bedroomed faux cottages, no investment into the local road network or sewerage services... and see if people are happy with the trade? 

Was round at friend's in Park South yesterday afternoon and the same plane must have been going back and forth every 10 minutes or so for several hours.  You could hear it with the windows shut, they must be two miles away from Redlands, in their garden it was even worse, you'd have nice birdsong and then for the next few minutes the drone of aircraft engine.

It's one thing to complain about flights from WW2 era airfield,  it's another to complain about a new airfield with a "history" like the one Redlands has, here's a summary I found at http://saynotoskydiving.co.uk/

It is an extraordinary story of Council failure and a Chief Executive (in at least once incidence that we have discovered) acting outside of his legal authority.

The owner of the site, Joe Smith, a Parish Councillor, spoke on his own behalf at the Parish Council meetings where his planning applications were considered. The Standards Board found that he and the Parish Council had broken the rules governing conduct and ordered all the Parish Councillors to be retrained and all nearby Parish Councils to be notified of this decision.

The Local Government Ombudsman found Swindon Borough Council guilty of minor maladministration in that it did not examine flying logs before granting permission for skydiving. Due to foot and mouth there had been no flying at Redlands and the temporary permission period was cut short early at the request of the landowner before anyone had a chance to object.  No flying from the airfield meant that we heard no noise and thus none of us knew that skydiving was taking place! The planning officer only listened to a simulated take off that took place on the ground, not in the air!

Even when flying started in 2001 using a Russian Antinov A 2 bi-plane this could not have been legal as the plane was not certified by the CAA for commercial aviation use in the UK!

Planning permission for building change of use use has been mostly through “retrospective use” and hedgerows and trees were cut down and a pond filled in to create a runway without the owner consulting the council or applying for permission to do so. This act, in particular, by someone who is a Parish Councillor, angered and upset many local people.

The Council has “lost” the original planning file T98/0298 which is referred to in the present planning permission and which contained the planning documents, plans etc. and planning history.

This seems to be another case of dodgy deals by SBC and Parish Councils.  According to that website it's London business that operates flights from there and they clearly don't give a damn about people in Swindon.

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[Romulus]

Yes it is rather a sad state of affairs when people would rather see developement than green space. But hey it could have been so different.?? If Redlands had been more responsible? If Redlands had listened to and respected their neighbours.? I have read some of the previous posts on this matter . I was quite shocked at the sarcastic and intimidating comments of people who have no idea what it is like to have their weekends completely ruined by this business. No one wanted to completely close Redlands people who were affected just wanted a break from the monotonous drone drone drone, but no one would listen no one , not even elected councillors. They should all be unseated  and that includes the two incumbents . At the end of the day Redlands have got the diversity they wanted and look at all the jobs that are coming to East Swindon yipee... 5 years of suffering , 5 years of overflying every 25 minutes . Redlands R.I.P.

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[Geoff Reid]

I'll ask the same question again:

Are you referring to a single, specific plane, (the one used for ferrying parachutists aloft), or many planes ?

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[the gorgon]

I'll ask the same question again:

Are you referring to a single, specific plane, (the one used for ferrying parachutists aloft), or many planes ?

Through my more limited experience it seems to be one plane, which I guess would be the one run by the London skydiving place.

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[Tobes]

Romulus, would I be correct in assuming that you'd be one and the same person who runs the 'anti Redlands flying' website?

I have some questions; environmental noise is something which has been heavily regulated for years. There are set criteria for what constitutes a nuisance or unacceptable levels.

Have environmental officers/ monitoring never been applied to operations at Redlands?

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[the gorgon]

Romulus, would I be correct in assuming that you'd be one and the same person who runs the 'anti Redlands flying' website?

I have some questions; environmental noise is something which has been heavily regulated for years. There are set criteria for what constitutes a nuisance or unacceptable levels.

Have environmental officers/ monitoring never been applied to operations at Redlands?

Trouble is there's a difference between what residents might consider a nuisance and what a council considers to be one. I'm sure if environmental officers monitored Eastcott for drunks coming from say Regents Circus they'd say it's all within the law and there is no nuisance, residents might wholeheartedly disagree.

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[Tobes]

Yes - but there's a gulf of difference between people walking up and down the streets talking loudly during the day - and doing it pissed at 4.00am in the morning, careening off people's cars and vomiting in the their doorways.... The former constitutes acceptable behaviour (even if it might be irritating) and no one would have any reasonable grounds for complaint, the latter is deeply anti-social, not least because people are asleep.

As an analogy, unless they are doing nocturnal parachute drops, I don't really see how it stacks up.

A better comparison would be the recent events at The Castle pub. Some neighbours complained about the late night noise created by the extended licencing hours, the enlarged smoking garden and the noise of people using it, as well as the noise of the bands which was made worse by the constant opening and closing of the door to the pub garden. It was a controversial decision which split the community here, but licencing worked with the regulators, agreed the noise was unacceptable according to the recorded and monitored levels and restricted the pubs terms for use of the garden accordingly (the smoking area is now barred to drinkers after 9.00 if i remember correctly).

I wonder what approaches were made to SBC planning about the noise levels at Redlands, and what response was given, using what rationale?

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[Spunkymonkey]

Noise effects different people in different ways.

I used to live near Tesco in Ocotal Way. At night when it was otherwise quiet, we could here the 'vehicles reversing' alarms from trucks making deliveries at 2am. We also had a lot of noise from the railway as the start of the electrification works. Worst of all was the regular noise of the police helicopter chasing chavs in the early hours. This was the worst disturbance as it was the loudest and most unnecessary. Any scum bags that were caught were ultimately let off anyway, so the disturbance was for no purpose.

My girlfriend and I are night owls and these disturbances annoyed us. My elderly neighbours were tucked up in bed by 9pm and were fast asleep before it all kicked off. They didn't even notice the noise.

My neighbours would have been annoyed by daytime noise but were oblivious to night time noise. We were the opposite.

I would rather listen to an plane at 2pm at the weekends compared to a helicopter at 2am on average two nights per week. Noise affects us all differently.

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[Muggins]

I could compare and sympathise with those living by Redlands.   

For many, many, years, we had an illegal motorbike problem, the little dears would be down, up around, from 10am until well after dark in the summer. 

Often with no exhausts, or peppered with holes, just to make it even louder, it absolutely spoiled every nice day, we had to sit indoors with windows and doors shut. There was no control on it whatsoever, even walking the dog was a nightmare but that's not to doing with sound. It was the sound that was all over. There was no hope of a definite 'going home time'

This can affect one mentally.   

Now Swindon speedway was a different matter - hardly anyone complained about that - granted it was a bit further away, but you knew when it would start and when it would stop.
I was happy to hear the speedway, it meant summer was here.

Not one person ever said to me that it didn't bother them or that they liked the sound of the illegals!!  Most selfish bunch of people ever.

It took an anti social behaviour law, and community Support officers to get us anywhere on that one. And, of course, when the Police discovered they were mostly stolen bikes and they were using them as getaway vehicles. 

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