Why an ‘environmental noise committee’?! Black Bourton is a quiet, peaceful community with little noise or light pollution. We do have a big neighbour, however, and as with any neighbour we like to maintain a cordial relationship.
RAF Brize Norton is home to Air Transport, Air-to-Air refuelling and Military Parachuting, with aircraft operating from the station including the Lockheed C-130 Hercules, Boeing C-17 Globemaster III, Airbus A400M Atlas and Airbus Voyager, which replaced the now-decommissioned Vickers VC10 in September 2013 and the Lockheed TriStar in March 2014. The northern boundary of our parish is along the middle of the main runway of the airfield.
Fortunately because we are alongside the runway no aircraft fly over us to take-off or land, so although near we are not affected by flying aircraft.
However, when the Hercules fleet at RAF Lyneham officially moved to Brize Norton on 1 July 2011, we did experience noise from running the Hercules on the ground for maintenance. This is where our committee came in. With careful liaison with the base all ground maintenance is now done under hangars or behind sound barriers so our village continues to remain quiet and peaceful.
As ever, we are watchful and if you feel any noise from the base is impacting you (see this post), then do use the contact form quoting ‘Noise’ in ‘Your Subject’ line.