Perhaps the new cameras for ULEZ October roll out should face the sky too! Considering they pump a lot more fuel & fumes out than my poor trusty stead, or are they all euro 6 compliant too?
Janet Daby MP made another excellent contribution concerning noise and flight paths over Lewisham in Parliament yesterday.
This concerns not making it worse but it is terrible now.
Was awful this morning - non stop from 6am. Then suddenly stopped soon after 7. There could surely be some way to push back those arrivals until a civil hour on a Sunday morning. That would require them to prioritise those affected by the noise and I don’t think we’re on their radar.
I complained via this link - Make a complaint about noise | Heathrow
guess it will go nowhere but figured at least it’s channelled some of my irritation
Please keep complaining as each complaint is given a reference number & counted for both Heathrow & London City Airports. Before covid their complaints departments would always say we don’t get that many complaints from Lewisham residents
How strange… they were using the Boeing 757 aka C32 which is usually the plane used by the vice-president or secretary of state or other senior officials. Not the Boeing 747. I wonder if that was to accommodate the shorter runway at Newquay?
Totally agree. Both airports have to publish complaint levels and analyse them by type, location and so on. London City reports theirs quarterly, so making a complaint at least once a quarter helps keep the numbers up.
With low numbers of complaints they are prone to making generalised claims about aircraft noise not being an issue for many people.
Maybe Trump hasn’t given it back yet.
I have raised a noise complaint with Heathrow to add to the list. 
My (default automated arrogant?) response to Sunday’s complaint FYI
I have had a slightly different reply to this, which is interesting and may be useful to know.
Dear Robert
Thank you for contacting the Community Relations team. I am sorry you have been disturbed by planes using Heathrow.
As you are aware, the SE23 area is affected by arriving aircraft preparing to join the final approach path into Heathrow when we are on westerly operations.
There are no set routes for aircraft moving towards the final approach path and the point at which they join it will vary day to day depending on how they are sequenced by Air Traffic Control. However, the general arrival patterns have remained similar for many years.
COVID-19 has, and continues to have, a devastating impact on Heathrow’s operations. As a result we consolidated our operations and returned to ‘single runway operations’ on January 1st. This means instead of operating one runway for departures and one runway for arrivals, we see departures and arrivals on a single runway using mixed mode operations.
We are alternating which runway we use on a weekly basis instead of the daily alternation we provide normally. This is a temporary measure due to the substantial impact that the COVID-19 pandemic continues to have on Heathrow’s operations. At present we are not able to predict how long we will need to operate in this way, but we will continue to review this situation and will look to revert to our usual operation when the number of daily aircraft movements significantly increases.
However, SE23 is an area that doesn’t benefit from the runway alternation system to the same extent as areas which are closer to the airport. I’ve attached a couple of maps showing that although your area is closer to the approach for Heathrow’s southern runway, even when the northern runway is in use some aircraft will cross from south to north to join the final approach for the northern runway. Of course, there will be many aircraft already established on the final approach, so the majority wouldn’t be doing this.
Heathrow’s airspace is one of the most congested in the world for a number of reasons: the proximity of four other major airports (Gatwick, Stansted, London City and Luton); the location of the four holding stacks; and the interaction between arriving and departing traffic. Taken together, these mean that until changes are made to the whole of London’s airspace through the Government’s modernisation programme, it will not be possible to make significant changes to how and where aircraft fly.
Due to the Expansion project pause and the COVID impact, our airspace change programme was paused and put under review. Heathrow remains committed to Airspace Modernisation and the UK Future Airspace Strategy Implementation (FASI) programme. At the recent Heathrow Community Noise Forum it was announced that planning is currently underway to consider an Airspace Modernisation Airspace Change.
This follows the news that the Government have announced a £5.5 million investment in its airport modernisation strategy, supporting airports to develop and evaluate design options aimed at making journeys quicker, quieter and cleaner. More details are available on the Government’s website: £5.5 million to drive improvements to UK’s ‘motorways in the sky’ - GOV.UK
We appreciate that for you and other residents the noise from aircraft is disruptive which is why minimising the impact of noise is a priority for Heathrow. For example, there are various noise abatement procedures in force to minimise the impact of arriving aircraft on both the local and wider community.
I would like to assure you that Heathrow is continuously finding ways to reduce the impacts of noise. For example, we provide a strong financial incentive for airlines to use the quietest planes currently available through the use of variable landing charges. Our Fly Quiet and Green programme is another step we are taking to encourage airlines to use quieter aircraft and to fly them in the quietest possible way. This has improved airline engagement on both fleet and flight performance.
If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to call me.
Please be assured your complaint has been registered.
Kind regards
Karen
Community Relations Officer
London City Airport is back, I expect many here have noticed. They seem to be flying their concentrated low altitude arrivals path over Lewisham even lower than usual.
On 18/19/20 July they were as low as 1750 feet when they reached Forest Hill according to their own tracking system.
City tell us that they are keen to get cracking with the redesign of this flightpath to give us some rest by introducing alternative routes or some kind of dispersal. This looks like being a long and dispiriting process. But they log complaints quarterly and it helps to show depth of local feeling if they have some from our area. Local MP Janet Daby has been pushing the Heathrow/London City double flightpath issue in Parliament and met with some local aviation campaigners very recently . She is keen to push further, and it looks as though she will meet with the aviation minister quite soon.
To complain about noise, and low flying a quick email to environment@londoncityairport.com will do the trick, include your address and postcode so they know where it came from.
In Horniman Gardens these aircraft fly about the length of a running track over our heads.
Here are a couple of screenshots showing the low flying of recent days. I have included some of these in my own recent complaints.
20 July . 1875 feet , 26 km from landing
18 July 1748 feet 27km from landing

Can I ask a stupid question? Obviously SE23 is quite hilly, is the height listed the height above sea level, or something else? I guess I am also asking, if it is sea-level, I assume it is therefore worse for those ‘higher up’ in SE23 so to speak?
Yes it’s above mean sea level. We live in a hilly area. When they go over, say, Torridon Road, Lowther Hill and Horniman gardens you can take some 300 feet off to reach the actual height above our homes. They are the length of a running track’ 400 m , above you if you are in the Tewkesbury estate.
Thanks for posting this. I definitely noticed the increased noise on Sunday (esp. very early in the morning), Monday and Tuesday and was wondering what has changed.
I will log some complaints too. What website/ app are you using to track the aircraft?
To track the low flying London City planes their site is
https://travislcy.topsonic.aero/
Note though their operating hours between:-
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06.30 and 22.30 hours on weekdays
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06.30 and 13.00 hours on Saturdays
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12.30 and 22.30 on Sundays
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09.00 and 22.30 hours on Public or Bank Holidays
So pre 6.30 Sunday morning wake ups must be Heathrow, which also operates night flights.
We only see London City flights over us when the wind is from the east. This unfortunately tends to coincide with summer hot weather patterns when we are outside or have windows open.
Thanks, that’s really helpful.
Great to see Ellie Reeves MP today pushing in Parliament for Forest Hill against low flying aircraft in our area, from two London airports.
A useless answer, but it needs sustained effort.
As you say, a useless answer from Rees-Mogg, although perhaps useful to the aviation industry.
Meanwhile, someone who has benefitted more than most from air travel, is able to get aircraft diverted from her residence.
‘The Queen is set to benefit from a no-fly-zone being imposed over Windsor Castle, after complaining in the past about the “noise in the air” in the skies over her home.’
Terrible if it were true, but this article is completely false - I asked the question at the last Heathrow Community Noise Forum.




