Farmer gets payout after birds terrified by low flying helicopters ! & LHR noise complaints !!!

London Heathrow Airport (IATA: LHR) is a major international airport in West London, England, United Kingdom. Heathrow is the busiest airport in the United Kingdom and the busiest airport in Europe by passenger traffic. Heathrow lies 22 kms west  of Central London, and has two parallel east–west runways along with five terminals on a site that covers 12.14 square kilometres (4.69 sq mi).

Are you calm and composed – do you live in harmony – at peace in your workplace and at home ?  Peace at workplace could be disturbed by your boss, your subordinates and at times by unknown [rather unseen] scandalous elements jealous of you.  When you retire back, you expect a tranquil environment.  Blessed are those, who own a house – most of us live in apartment where some of the walls are shared.  There could be flurry of activities that keep disturbing you, shattering your peace. 

One of them is of course the noise – may be vocal, from the pets, from the electronic devices, from dance and related activities and more.  On a holiday, when one tries to catch up some lost sleep, there could be the spell of hammer continuously hitting or some fresh alteration work – not many options available. 

Away in advanced countries, nuisance is a tort.   There are two types - private nuisance and public nuisance. A private nuisance is a civil wrong; it is the unreasonable, unwarranted, or unlawful use of one's property in a manner that substantially interferes with the enjoyment or use of another individual's property, without an actual Trespass or physical invasion to the land. A public nuisance is a criminal wrong; it is an act or omission that obstructs, damages, or inconveniences the rights of the community. Nuisance law is not of recent origin, it  dates back to medieval times when its main purpose was to eradicate the nasty and unpleasant elements of everyday life.  The tort has continued and developed as a form of legal action with which to protect the environment.  Here are two interesting instances to do with ‘noise’.

In an instance reported in Daily Mail and other Press a Chicken farmer in Ninfield, Sussex has received £18,708 from the Ministry of Defence, after birds terrified by low-flying Apache helicopter stopped laying eggs.    It is reported that the farmer in Sussex village claimed compensation from the Ministry of Defence claiming that his birds so frightened by the loud noise of helicopter stopped laying eggs. 

The payout was just one of four last year made to poultry farmers who said that their chickens were so scared by military aircraft that they trampled one another death and that the survivors were so terrified by the noise, the stopped laying eggs.  It comes as figures released under the Freedom of Information Act showed that the MoD paid out a total of £1.1million in compensation due low flying incidents in 2014. It adds that payments were also made to people who lost horses, cows and puppies, which were also spooked by the noise of the military aircraft. 

The figures also showed that the MoD sanctioned a payment of £25,000 to a falconry centre in Derbyshire which lost a number of precious birds of prey when a helicopter flew over it. It is believed around eight birds including owls, hawks and falcons were killed in the incident when the terrified birds fatally injured themselves by flying full speed into the wire walls of the aviary trying to get away from the noise.  Many of the compensation payouts come with confidentially agreements so that people agree not to disclose what they have been paid for. Other payments included £42,700 for cows that died after being scared by a Puma helicopter in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, and £20,000 for an injured horse that lost its foal in a case in Dyfed, Wales. Often the biggest payouts are made to horse riders who suffer injuries when their animals bolt after being spooked by the military aircraft. An MoD report said low-flying compensation claims required particularly careful monitoring to identify potentially fraudulent claims.

In a different case, it is revealed that the 8,000 Heathrow noise complaints  are from just TWO people. Another report reveals that the 2 anti-Heathrow campaigners sent 8,000 noise complaints to the airport - with some arriving one hour before the aircraft was due to take off. The duo were using automated software to complain when a flight was due to fly over their homes near the airport.

But officials at the airport caught them out when they failed to take into account the clocks going back in October leading to complaints being made about flights which were still on the ground. The airport now believes that dozens of complainants are using similar software to generate automatic email complaints when a plane was due regardless of the noise.  According to airport officials, two individuals were responsible for 7,888 complaints in 2014. The airport claims that just 37 people using the automated email system have lodged more than 28,000 complaints.  The airport has seen the total number of noise complaints rise from 18,826 in 2013 to 94,114 last year.

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

16^th Feb 2015.