THE EUROPEAN Union has called on the British Bases to take measures in order to limit the amount of noise generated by their military aircraft in the Akrotiri area, following complaints from residents in the area.
According to Simerini newspaper, a ruling has called on the authorities to examine the possibility of relocating the runway at the Akrotiri base and to put into place measures designed to protect the inhabitants. The EU also looked into the issue of developing properties in the base areas. It is thought that certain zones will be given the right to be developed, while others will remain classified as military.
Residents of Akrotiri have for many years demanded the right to build in the area, with members of the European Parliament recently visiting the area to discuss the issue.
The EU also demanded that the bases co-operate with the Ministry of Health so that residents’ health can be monitored regularly, in light of so many people living close to large military antennas.
Responding to the EU ruling, Akrotiri community leader George Christou said: “This is a very important development which satisfies us. However, it must be comprehensively enforced by the government.”
Bases spokesman Dennis Barnes yesterday told the Mail: “We have had no official notification yet, and are waiting for the official ruling and documentation; until we have received it and digested its contents it would be inappropriate to comment.”
He added: “We take our responsibilities extremely seriously and adapt our military requirements wherever possible within the bounds of cost and necessity to fit in with our neighbours. This year, for example, there was a completely new Red Arrows training programme, which took place with around 80 per cent of all manoeuvres over the sea. No official complaints were received about noise or vibrations.”
Akrotiri residents have long been complaining about the noise levels generated by military aircraft.
As well as excessive noise, they claim bases aircraft generate vibrations which are damaging their homes.
“Military planes are allowed to be as noisy as they want according to the law, because they have engines which are designed to make them go very fast and accelerate quickly,” David Learmount, the safety and operations editor of Flight International magazine has said in the past
“The thing with military planes is that performance is what it’s all about.”
However, Learmount said that from his own experience of aircraft, and as an RAF transport pilot stationed in Akrotiri in the early seventies, he did not believe any of the aircraft there could cause structural damage to homes.
Learmount added that in the case of Akrotiri the airfield was right out on the end of the peninsula. “It’s about as remote as an airfield could reasonably be, and if you approach the runway from either end, your approach is not entirely over the sea but it is over bases area land,” he said.
