The Secretary of State for Transport publishes annual aircraft noise contour maps for the three London airports (Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted) which are designated under section 80 for the purposes of section 78 of the Civil Aviation Act 1982 for noise control purposes. These follow the standard UK practice of producing aircraft noise contours for the average summer’s day (Leq 16 hour, 07.00-23.00) where ‘summer’ is the 92-day period from 16 June to 15 September.
The Secretary of State is not responsible for the production of noise contour maps at non-designated airports. The publication of aircraft noise contour maps is a matter for local decision. Individual airports will need to have regard to local circumstances, including requirements under planning conditions/agreements.
Under the European Environmental Noise Directive (END) 2002/49/EC, member states are required to produce strategic noise maps every five years for the main sources of environmental noise, including major airports with more than 50,000 movements (a movement being a take-off or landing) per year. The relevant UK airports including Southampton produced maps last year. The maps can be viewed on the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs website:
www.noisemapping.defra.gov.uk.
The Environmental Noise Directive requires that maps should represent annual average noise values and requires the use of four different parameters. These are Lday (07.00-19.00), Levening (19.00-23.00), Lnight (23.00-07.00), Leq 16 hour (07.00-23.00), and Lden (00.00-24.00).
Given the difference in parameters, caution should be exercised in attempting any comparison between ‘traditional’ UK annual summer daytime aircraft noise contour maps and aircraft contour maps produced in accordance with the Environmental Noise Directive.