Claims relating to Aircraft Noise

Aircraft noise is a bane of many lives. Although there are limits on the ability to address this using civil or statutory nuisance, other steps can be taken, such as putting pressure on public authorities to exercise their powers to restrict airport and smaller airfield development and operations.

Nuisance

Civil aircraft have a wide (though not absolute!) immunity in respect of noise nuisance which can make it difficult to take effective action where aircraft noise is causing a problem. The exemption for civil nuisance claims does not apply to military aircraft noise (see Dennis v MoD where the Ministry of Defence had to pay substantial compensation). The statutory nuisance provisions do not apply to noise from any aircraft (except model aircraft). Remarkably, these rules go back to the earliest days of aviation and are arguably wholly inappropriate in a modern “polluter pays” context: noise (and other pollution) carried out at the expense of others.

In our challenge, supported by a consortium of local authorities to night flights at Heathrow, which was in many respects successful, the European Court of Human Rights at first found in effect that there was a human right to sleep. This was overturned on the government’s appeal, which allowed the government a wide discretion in this sort of regulatory area. However, the discretion is not unlimited; and must be exercised lawfully.