Pic: Chris Blakeley

Brockley residents can once again sleep sound, following months of campaigning against an overhead flight path.

Heathrow began an Early Morning Noise Respite Trial on November 5th.

On average, around seventeen flights arrive at the airport every morning between 4.30am and 6.00am.

The trial was intended to provide residents below the flight path with a more definite sense of when these flights would pass overhead. But the new path crossed above Brockley.

Elsie Parkin, of Manor Avenue, Brockley, set up the Brockleynoise campaign with a fellow resident in protest at the trial, which she says the community were never consulted on.

“It was not until I investigated what the cause of the increased noise was – noise starting as early as 4.20am – that any of us became aware of the existence of the trial.”

Although the trial was always scheduled to end on March 31, it could have been made permanent had it been considered a success. Heathrow confirmed they’d received 170 complaints about the trial.

Parkin has no doubt that Brockleynoise achieved its objectives. “As a result of the campaign, BAA/Heathrow and The Heathrow Association for the Control of Aircraft Noise (HACAN) have acknowledged that the trial had ‘unintended consequences’ – the noise over Brockley – and that although the data still needs to be analysed, the trial will not be implemented permanently ‘in its current form’.”

“This is fantastic news but we need to stay alive to the fact that another, different, trial may at some point be implemented. In this regard BAA/Heathrow has confirmed that we can have input, and will be consulted, before any new trial is modelled or implemented.

“Whilst we all accept that aircraft passing overhead is unavoidable, we do not accept changes which result in a significant noise levels which starts in the middle of the night and is constant.”

She added: “Both John Stewart of HACAN and councillor Johnson have been of invaluable support to us.”

A spokesperson for Heathrow said: “This trial was developed in conjunction with campaigners HACAN as a means of giving local communities predictable respite from the noise of early morning flights. Now that the trial has ended we will carry out a full analysis of the results and feedback we have received to help inform next steps.”

Brockley Central have covered the campaign in its entirety.