Civil Aviation (Noise Certification)

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 20 April 1970.

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Photo of Sir Charles Mott-Radclyffe Sir Charles Mott-Radclyffe , Windsor 12:00, 20 April 1970

I readily adhere to your appeal, Mr. Deputy Speaker, to keep my remarks short, since a large number of hon. Members whose constituents, like mine, are having their lives rendered at frequent intervals well-nigh unbearable because of aircraft noise wish to speak. I welcome the Order in the sense that at least it is a first step towards calling a halt to a situation which is becoming, if one projects it into the future, unbearable.

I agree with my hon. Friend the Member for Gloucestershire, South (Mr. Corfield) that the Order is really cold comfort. The same point was made by the hon. Member for Putney (Mr. Hugh Jenkins). Reading the Press reports, I thought that it was going to do something about the problem now, but, reading the Order, one finds that it is not going to deal with any aircraft operating now and that it ignores the jumbo-jet. All it does is to impose some very proper restrictions on the amount of noise an aircraft can make after a somewhat uncertain date in 1971 or later. That is fine, but it does not give much comfort or alleviation to the hundreds of thousands of people living in the vicinity of Heathrow and other airports.

The right hon. Gentleman said that, when it came into force, it would reduce the permissible threshold of noise by about half—a very loose figure. As the hon. Member for Putney said, it depends how many aircraft are flying at the same time. Perhaps the right hon. Gentleman could explain this point in more detail. It would be wrong for the public to be misled into supposing that, after some date in 1971 or later, the volume of aircraft noise will be reduced by half, because I doubt whether that is so.

The crucial factor appears to be how to make the Order effective. I am not talking so much about penalties, although my hon. Friend made a very good point about them, but about the machinery of reporting an infringement. What is it supposed will happen?

Let us, first, take the case of a B.O.A.C. aircraft taking off for New York with a certification which the Order imposes. Its noise is above the permitted level. Under the monitoring system, a report is made that it made too much noise on take-off. Is that report passed to New York and the captain warned when he arrives there that he cannot come back to Heathrow unless he is more careful about noise? Or is there a formal complaint to some body, which will then consider it and perhaps refer it to the Ministry? Will an inquiry be set up? What happens if, after several months, it is decided, on conflicting evidence, that there had only really been a marginal infringement of the regulations? How is this all going to work?

Secondly, is there contemporary legislation in other countries which are signatory to the Convention, perhaps along the lines of this Order. Are the other countries concerned within a matter of a few months introducing in their own legislatures some regulations such as these? If they are not, we shall be out on a limb.

We can impose regulations about our own aircraft and, if we wish to, and as long as we can enforce them, regulations on aircraft of other nationalities coming to Heathrow or other United Kingdom airports, but if the country of origin has no regulations, something similar, coming into operation contemporaneously, I can see enormous difficulties.

The third point is on noise monitoring systems. It is no good having regulations, valuable as they are, unless the noise monitoring system does the trick. I am a layman in these matters, but when I look at Schedule 2 with its extraordinary mathematical formula, with a cross between the nightmare sum one had on the board at school, when one was beaten if one could not do it—I am talking of an out-of-date school where corporal punishment was allowed and still is—and one's income tax return. Unless one is a senior wrangler, it is unintelligible, although I have no doubt the Minister understands it.

Is the noise monitoring system competent to give an accurate rendering of aircraft flying at "sea level mean molecular weight?" If it is not, the Order is less valuable than it otherwise would be, but we have had, in this House, previous discussions about monitoring systems. I know the Minister is keen to get a better noise monitoring system. It is now partly manual and partly automatic. In reply to a Question by me on 28th January, he said it would be largely automatic by 1971. How are we going towards that? My recollection is that in a previous statement, the Minister said that it would be largely automatic in 1970. In a letter to me on 18th February, this year, he explained that there were four automatic monitoring sites at Heathrow and soon, or "speedily" as he said, two more would be installed. How speedily will those two others be set up?

Unless there is a monitoring system which is effective, not only to catch the existing noise level, but to encompass this incredibly complicated new formula, and in respect of aircraft which are on routes they are not supposed to be on as well as those they are supposed to be on, I do not see how it can be effective. While welcoming the Order, and being dazzled by the mathematical formula, I look forward to the Minister explaining, in simple language, the details of Schedule 2.