BVFoE wrote to Rushmoor Borough Council asking them to extend the consultation period. This has been done and the new closing date for comments is the 16th January 2026. See here for more detail.
BVFoE wrote to Rushmoor Borough Council asking them to extend the consultation period. This has been done and the new closing date for comments is the 16th January 2026. See here for more detail.
Re your handbill encouraging residents to comment on the application to increase aircraft movements at Farnborough airport. Thank you for the prompt. I will be objecting, and will write to the identified organizations and personnel.
I am one of the few residents living near the airfield-end of the flightpath approaching from the East, and closest to the belly of an aircraft, where our vertical separation is about 250 ft. When I bought my flat in 1993, all military test flying had been moved to Boscombe Down, and the airfield was a ghost-field except for the two-yearly Farnborough airshow, which I did not mind putting up with.
I did object to the reopening of the airfield to business/commercial flights, and when using this thin end of the wedge to step increase aircraft movements forced on us a few more times, I objected to them too. Consequently, far from being a ghost-airfield, this place is now buzzing with aircraft, like bees around a beehive. It is becoming intolerable living here, and further making it difficult to sell our property and move out, and the asset value gradually dropping relative to other similar properties away from the flight path. Despite all these adverse welfare on us residents, yet again the airfield operator is trying to impose further misery on us by way of further large step increment of movements.
Other than the noise, air pollution (and resulting excessive dust in the house, increasing incidence of dust allergies, and breathing problems over the last 20-years or so), we are concerned for the risk of accidents. An underlying fear is that sooner or later, an aircraft could fall on our bedroom wiping us out. Of course the experts might say that such accidents is a rare event, but we know that it did happen at Biggin Hill airfield a few years ago, at least two fatal accidents at Heathrow that I know of, and a few near misses of landing and taking off aircraft from Heathrow. Moreover, longer the time passed without an accident, closer we get to an accident occurring. Increasing the movements yet again will certainly make that accident to occur sooner than later.
Just to make this point, I would like you to know that about 4-years ago (I need to check my archival e-mails to check the date exactly), we did have a fall from an aircraft that punched a big hole in our roof. Mercifully, we were not in the flat at that time of the object falling; we discovered the damage only when rainwater started coming down along bedroom walls. When investigated the water source in the loft, I discovered the gaping hole through which the sky could be seen, a clean edged puncture of the roof slates and lining, with debris scattered on the loft floor in the direction of the airfield. As I am an ex-RAF engineer officer, and has investigating expertise, I could work out that the root cause was an ice fall from an aircraft coming into land – whether the ice from frozen clean vapor condensation or from a dirty toilet leak, that I could not ascertain because by the time I discovered the damage, ice had already melted and loft insulation was still wet. I took photographs of the damage and debris scatter, reported it to the airfield operators. They immediately compensated but discouraged me from talking to the press. Naturally, I kept quiet about it, because I needed to get the roof repaired as a priority. However, I should still have relevant photographs and correspondences amongst my archived mail, if anyone would like to have them, to back up this claim of risk of accidents.
Given this experience, fear of a serious accident, our increasing health issues from air pollution and dust, increasing noise even on weekends, annoying Startling and Doppler Effects, and general nuisance such as interfering with TV reception, I am absolutely objecting to any further increments of aircraft movements.
Thank you so much for sharing your story with us. We’re so sorry you have had to experience the ever increasing effects of the airport over the years since it became a private airfield.
Would you be comfortable with us sharing your story further afield as we think it is very powerful and raises significant issues around safety which often come further down the list of people’s concerns.
Our email address is coordinator@blackwatervalleyfoe.org.uk