Robert Key Esq MP
House of Commons
LONDON
SW1A 0AA

26 MAY 2004

At First Orders on 18 May, in answer to your question about light recreational aircraft, I said I would look into this matter further.

'General aviation' (GA) is a broad term covering many private and small scale commercial uses of light fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters. It encompasses many different forms of activity such as training, parachuting, aerobatics, glider-towing, some forms of business aviation, medical flights, helicopter manoeuvring practice and of course, recreational flying. These activities may be local to the origin aerodrome or point-to-point.

I recognise that some of these activities, especially where repetitive and/or at low altitudes, cause annoyance; it is often training, rather than recreational flying from point-to-point, which people find most irritating. Aerodromes should be good neighbours and stipulate noise amelioration procedures, preferably in consultation with representatives of local communities affected by their activities. Local aerodrome operators can, and usually do, make their own rules and arrangements to reduce noise disturbance, for example, by designing training circuits carefully to avoid noise sensitive areas, as far as safely possible, and seeing that pilots adhere to them; they can also place limits on the times of use.

Government policy on the mitigation of light aircraft noise is local solutions to local problems and a fair balance between the legitimate rights and interests of flyers on the one hand and those of the community on the other. The Future of Air Transport White Paper states our intention to introduce legislation on control of operational noise, in particular a new enabling power to help aerodromes to establish and enforce noise control arrangements, when parliamentary time allows. This is set out in the Control of Noise from Civil Aircraft: The Government's Conclusions published in parallel with the White Paper.

Although Town and Country Planning legislation and aerodromes' own conditions of use normally enable adequate noise control arrangements to be established, there are occasions where aerodromes are uncertain as to the adequacy of existing powers. The new power proposed in the above paper will, in particular, explicitly allow aerodromes to establish noise amelioration measures beyond the boundary of the aerodrome. This will put beyond doubt their ability to monitor — and impose penalties — in respect of adherence to noise preferential routes that extend some miles from the aerodrome as well as flying behaviour more generally near the aerodrome but beyond its immediate boundary e.g. aerobatics displays. Where existing arrangements are working satisfactorily, however, the expectation will be that such arrangements will carry on much as before.

All aircraft must comply with the Rules of the Air Regulations 1996. These specify, amongst other things, that aircraft are not permitted to fly over congested areas below 1500 feet. In non-congested airspace, aircraft must fly at least 500 feet from the nearest person, vessel, vehicle or structure (except when landing or taking off in accordance with normal aviation practice). These Rules are applied for safety reasons, not because of noise, but they do have some incidental noise benefit because of the height restrictions.

Guidance on considerate general aviation flying and good environmental practice has been produced by the General Aviation Awareness Council and, with the UK in the lead, further guidance is being developed under the auspices of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO). International standards to reduce aircraft noise are also published by ICAO. The UK has adopted the latest available international standards in the Aeroplane Noise Regulations 1999. To be most effective, noise reduction technologies would need to be applied during the design phase. So, ICAO has produced guidelines on local action and flight procedures to alleviate the noise nuisance from existing light propeller-driven aeroplanes. This guidance has been disseminated in the UK by the Civil Aviation Authority.

There are currently no plans for the introduction of any other measures to reduce aircraft noise from light aircraft. If a licensed aerodrome fails to operate reasonable controls, powers are in reserve to specify under s.5 or even, ultimately, to designate under s.80 for the purposes of s.78 of the Civil Aviation Act 1982. It is not, however, envisaged that s.78 designation would be likely to apply to small aerodromes, given the policy favouring local solutions where practicable.

If you are interested, there are some useful factsheets on the Civil Aviation Authority website (http://www.caa.co.uk/dap/document.asp?groupid=295) which contains further information about some of the points covered in my letter.

TONY MCNULTY