London city airport noise report

Report from meeting today with London City Airport (LCY) on aircraft noise issues.

​If you live within the red 57 dB line (see picture below) you will be entitled to remedial works to make your home more sound proof from aircraft noise. The red line will be recalculated every year so may shift out or in depending on traffic & noise. There is more detail in the attached PDF leaflet here.

We talked about how the red line was calculated and it appears to have been properly put together but I personally think we need to do our own analysis to double check as I am not an expert. It is calculated on a 16 hour period in the summer when traffic is at its highest and aircraft noise is more of an issue when people want windows open. LCY are installing a noise monitoring station in East India Dock Basin park. One of 6 around the airport, they will report the aggregate noise levels annually but not individually.

The remedial works they will pay to install include;
• Extra window glazing
• Ventilators / Ducting so that air can get in even if windows are closed 

You should email [email protected] or call 0203 203 2397 if you believe you live within the Red line area and have not yet had extra noise insulation in your home. You need to send your full address and it might help if you said what your status is i.e. home owner, tenant etc. LCY struggle to find the address of overseas property owners despite using the Land Registry documents. If you are a tenant, contact your property owner as this will benefit both you and the property owner.

The four towers of Electron, Proton, Neutron & Switch – the property management company have been working with LCY on how to do it. They decided after some testing not to install ducting but to focus on additional glazing. A letter is due to be issued soon.

Even Robin Hood Gardens is getting double glazing installed even though the building is due to be demolished in 2018. Community buildings like schools, nurseries and Trinity Buoy Wharf are also included in the scheme. The rules for how this all works are set in the S106 agreement between LCY and Newham Council.

But if you live elsewhere within the red line area contact LCY as not all properties have yet had insulation installed yet.

This does not apply to the new Ballymore Ontario tower as design was used to reduce noise impact.

We talked about new aircraft coming to replace the noisy RJ Bae 146 which is being phased out, they include, 
Bombardier C series – Swiss Air – from Q1 2017
Sukhoi Superjet 100 – City Jet – from 2018?

LCY have also talked to Mitsubishi about their new Mitsubishi Regional Jet

These aircraft are all new designs, larger but quieter then the RJ. I suggested that when these new aircraft do landing tests at LCY that they tell us in advance so we can hear whether they are better or not.

If you have a residents meeting or something similar then LCY are happy to attend to answer any questions you may have. I plan to organise a Blackwall meeting in the next month about planning issues and will ask if they can attend.

We also discussed Heathrow noise and how we distinguish between LCY and Heathrow noise as sometimes LCY gets blamed for Heathrow noise and vice versa. How do to that is still unclear but I asked Heathrow Airport a similar question last week and am waiting for a response.

​Crossrail – LCY are working on a better connection to the Crossrail ‘Queen Elizabeth’ line which means all major London airports will be better connected by train and more integrated.
Let me know if you have any questions and I can pass onto LCY.