A packed meeting near Ashbourne last night heard how residents of the area and home owners as far out as Clonee and Kilbride have the ‘noisiest neighbours in the country’, as they all live close to the Dublin Airport flight path.
At the gathering, organised by the St Margarets residents group the hundreds in attendance aired their grievances over a recent decision by the Airport Noise Competent Authority, (ANCA) which is overseen by Fingal Council, to lift planning restrictions imposed by An Bord Pleanala when granting permission for the airports newest runway.
The major issue appears to centre around night flying as there are currently no restrictions in place regarding the amount of night flights in and out of Dublin.
At Heathrow in London, a much larger facility only 16 flights are permitted nightly while Gatwick has a figure of 25, this does not count flights which only arrive or depart at night dur to being delayed.
Mick O’Rourke of the group told Meath Live, ‘ This is probably the straw that broke the camels back but there are other concerns.
‘Initially when planning permission was granted planes had to fly in a straight line for 1.5 nautical miles, (2.8 kms), before turning, as that would get them 4000 feet in the air. but that has been basically ignored and people who would have studied the planning application and built their homes on that basis now find planes flying maybe a hundred feet over them.
‘We have met with the Dublin Aiport Authority, (DAA) and put some suggestions forward but had no response yet.
‘On Thursday morning I went and recorded the decibel level of a plane flying low over houses and that was 90.1 which is high.’
The App, decibel pro, which advises on such issues, states, that ‘90 decibels is a high noise level, equivalent to the noise generated by a leaf blower or the sound level of a concert. Compared to 80 dB, 90 dB is 10 times more intense and twice as loud. Whenever you are exposed to this noise level, you should wear hearing protection.’
O’Rourke said, ‘We’ll just have to see where we go from here but there are a lot of unhappy people in the area right now.’
Councillor Joe Bonner, who attended the meeting said, ‘It is essential the DAA observe all regulations, it would be concerning the impact this is having on householders in Meath.’
