A leaflet dropped through my door a few days ago seeking for my views on proposed aircraft flight path changes. I'm sure they can probably guess, but it's always nice to be asked.
The National Air Traffic Service (NATS) will be putting a holding stack for Stansted over the Stowmarket area, which means Alpheton will be somewhere under the flight path.
I really don't want any more planes over my house. It's bad enough that w
e have military helicopters performing low-flying exercises at all hours of the day and night. But I know I'm going to get them.
There is a telling paragraph in the NATS leaflet, which says "For business, for pleasure, more of us are flying more frequently than ever before."
And there you have the reasons for airport expansion and more areas of the countryside being covered by flightpaths. Case closed really.
We cannot really say "not in my backyard" if we are travelling from Stansted, Heathrow or wherever on foreign holidays. The more we use air travel the more it is inevitable there will be an erosion of our rural peace.
The recently-launched Save Our Silence Action Group is battling to prevent the tranquility around here being disturbed, and I wish it well. But I'm not optimistic.
If we really do not want noise overhead, which is what SOSAG – not the best of acronyms – is aiming for, then we need to radically rethink our attitude towards flying.
And, credit crunch notwithstanding, I'm not sure enough of us are prepared to do that.
On the subject of flying... An article I read at the weekend said plans to allow mobile phones to be used on aircraft are well advanced.
I was reminded of a radio interview with Richard Frenkiel, one of the team who invented the mobile phone, who said he was appalled at the prospect of people being allowed to use mobiles on aircraft.
The thought of being trapped in a plane next to someone constantly talking on their mobile horrified him. Obviously he's either travelled, or heard what it's like travelling, on commuter trains to Liverpool Street.
I've spent the past three weeks gradually getting my body clock into synch with the radio alarm, a delightful process I always go through twice a year, and it gets no easier.
In winter, after the clocks go back, I find myself waking up an hour earlier than I need to. Now, after they have gone forward, I'm having to wake up an hour earlier than I want to.
Any politician who introduces a Bill to leave the clocks alone all year round will get my vote... well, maybe.
The full article contains 448 words and appears in Suffolk Free Press newspaper.
