NOISE IN THE AIR

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 101, 26 October 1934, Page 6

NOISE IN THE AIR

A PORTSMOUTH PROTEST

While the Minister of Transport in Britain is devoting his attention to street noises, residents of Southsea are organising a public protest meeting against noise in the air (says an English paper). Parts of Portsmouth constitute a prohibited area over which aircraft may only pass at a height of 6000 ft, but no such restrictions apply to Southsea, ivhero the roaring exhausts of aeroplanes flying low over houses are proving a source of distraction. Dr. Montague "Way, of Southsea, stated rocently that he had received letters from several nursing homes complaining that patients were suffering from the noise. St. Mary's Hospital, the Infectious Diseases Hospital, and the City Mental Hospital, are also all on the route over which these aeroplanes are flying. • Dr. Way called a public meeting to consider the matter, and invited all tho members of the Municipal Airport Committee to attend. "I have interviewed the Town Clerk," ho stated, "but while there is a law against noisy motor vehicles there is apparently no law against noisy aeroplanes, _ nor against low flying except that .airmen must not fly to the danger of tho public. ~ "Tho Royal Air Force are not th« cause of-tho trouble. They fly higu and you only hear a droning noise then. The machines from tho airport, however, take tho shortest possible route over the houses. If they would only take people for their flights east over Langstono Harbour instead it would make all the difference, but that would occupy longer time and use more petro.. "At* some schools classes have had to be hold up while the machines are frying overhead because the pupils have not been able to hear tho masters speaking."