Hundreds more villages and hamlets than the Government predicts will be bombarded by noise pollution and residents' lives made a misery if three new runways are built at Stansted Airport, it was warned this week
New noise maps, produced by Stop Stansted Expansion (SSE), show that the beautiful rural idyll enjoyed by 100,000 residents across four counties would be destroyed for ever
Many Essex villages, including the Rodings, the Eastons, the Easters, and Great and Little Waltham, as well as Stebbing, Great and Little Bardfield, Pleshey, Fyfield, Willingale, and Blackmore, will all suffer badly, according to SSE
SSE says people living in an area 60 miles by 30 miles already complain about noise. They say disturbance will increase with up to eight times more flights, additional flight paths and wider stacking areas.
It is likely that flights will increase dramatically, both day and night.
They claim villagers living within 102 square miles around the airport will be "annoyed by noise" every day of their lives
These shock revelations contrast with the 27,900 residents predicted by the Department for Transport as likely to be badly affected if the airport is allowed to expand to twice the size of Heathrow and become the biggest in the world.
However, the DfT is standing by its own statistics and pollution predictions, claiming it was following WHO guidelines to the letter on what are acceptable levels of noise nuisance.
Published Monday, June 30, 2003
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