Tranquillity

Campaign date: 08-01-2008

It is becoming increasingly hard to ‘get away from it all’ in Kent. Tranquillity – the absence of man-made noise – is being eroded by housing and transport growth, especially the growing volume of traffic on our roads and the increasing number of aircraft droning over the county.

CPRE has been mapping tranquillity nationwide since 1965, demonstrating how our country’s peace and quiet have been suffering more and more from intrusive noise – the latest tranquillity map of the South East, from 2006, shows how few oases of natural calm remain.

It is vital that we halt the erosion of tranquillity in Kent. Peace and quiet tends to be lost incrementally – a bit more traffic year by year, a new line of pylons buzzing above our heads, the broadcast of ‘reversing beeps’ from a new warehouse. Too far down the line to reverse the process, we can suddenly realise the cacophony of our urban spaces has taken over another swathe of our countryside.

CPRE Kent tries to ensure that tranquillity is always considered in development proposals, and that those which threaten a loss of peace and quiet are refused. We have focussed on the issue in our response to the planning application to expand Lydd Airport on Romney Marsh. The CPRE tranquillity map of the South East shows how the Marsh, along with the Isle of Sheppey, has so far escaped the spread of noise pollution. The arrival and departure of short-haul jets over the rooftops of Romney Marsh would destroy tranquillity in one of its last bastions, as well as devastating quality of life for local residents.

Attachments:

Campaign Issues

• Lydd Airport
• Kent Science Park - Sittingbourne
• Lower Thames Crossing
• K.I.G. Kent International Gateway
• Celcon factory Ightham
• Thames Gateway
• Sellindge Sludge Plant
• Stop BIG! (aka KRAFT)
• Boris Island Airport