Life next to Leeds Bradford airport | UK News

A public inquiry into night-time flying rules at Leeds Bradford Airport has been held over the past few days.

The airport, in Yeadon, is currently allowed just under 3,000 take-offs and landings during the nights and early mornings in the summer months.

However, campaigners say those limits have been breached in each of the past three years.

But beyond all the rules, regulations and restrictions, what is it like to actually live next to the runway or under the take-off and landing routes at such a busy airport?

Glenmere Mount in Yeadon is a quiet cul-de-sac of semi-detached bungalows and houses. Many of the residents have lived there for decades.

An advert for a two-bedroom bungalow for sale on the Mount highlights the “views of the planes” as a perk of the property.

Carol, whose back garden fence is about 980ft (300m) from the airport runway, has lived there for more than 20 years.

She says she was well aware of the airport when she moved to the property from elsewhere in Leeds.

“We just liked the area. We knew the airport existed, we realised it would get busier, but it’s not caused us a major problem,” she says.

“The main problem is the traffic and the infrastructure.”

Carol’s point is backed up by the fact the estate is plastered with “no parking” signs – even one outside her own home which reads “disabled parking required outside the front of this house”.

She says holidaymakers are known to leave cars on their estate for two weeks at a time, but mostly the signs work and people are respectful.

John, who has lived at a nearby house on the estate for seven years, says the planes “don’t bother me at all”.

“I wouldn’t live here if I didn’t like the airport,” he says.

“You get used to it. Even the early morning flights, I don’t hear them.

“It’s only if you’re sitting out in the back garden and you’re talking that you have to stop because of the noise.

“You’ve got a nice open field at the back that’s not going to get built on. It’s a lovely location, and there’s Yeadon Tarn just down the road. You can’t beat it, living here.”

On the Tarn, a small lake which is a popular dog-walking location less than 650ft (200m) from the airport’s runway, some residents are more conflicted.

Sally Pickersgill, 68, who has lived in Yeadon for four and a half years, says she initially liked living near the airport – however her views have since changed.

Ms Pickersgill says she has more recently become concerned about the airport’s environmental impact and the number of night flights.

“I don’t believe they’re a good neighbour any longer,” Ms Pickersgill says.

Under rules set out in 1994, the airport is permitted a total of 2,920 take offs and landings between 23:00 and 07:00 during the summer – a rule which campaigners from the Group for Action on Leeds Bradford Airport claim has been broken for several years.

Vincent Hodder, the airport’s chief executive has said the rules, agreed by Leeds City Council in 1994, do not take into account changes to aircraft technology over the past 30 years to reduce noise.

The airport has also previously said it did “accidentally” breach the night time regulations in 2022, but it did not do so in 2023 and 2024, based on its interpretation of the rules.

Ms Pickersgill says: “The summer months have become a time where locals only get three to three-and-a-half hours of quiet at night.

“Irrespective of the airport trying to argue that one jet is more efficient than another, to anybody living under a flight path, a jet engine landing is a jet engine landing.”

Ms Pickersgill says she does not agree with claims about the proposed economic benefits of more flights from Leeds Bradford.

“We have lost most of our major business connection flights and what we’re doing is flying more planes to holiday destinations in which the locals are starting to become over saturated,” she says.

Meanwhile, another woman named Carol, walking her dog Archie around the Tarn, says she agrees night flights are an issue for people living near the airport – but she also says she enjoys the convenience of the airport.

Carol, who has lived in Yeadon since 1990, says: “I know there’s a pressure on flights, but it’s residential around here.

“We fly from Leeds Bradford, so if there are more flights and we don’t have to go to Manchester it’s good for us.”

However, she adds that “they need to do something about the night flying”.

Just over a mile south east of Leeds Bradford Airport is Horsforth, which sits under one of the two “noise preferential routes” for aircraft taking off – designated corridors in the air meant to minimise noise disturbance to the airport’s neighbours.

Martin and Claire have lived in the town all their lives, and Martin says the comings and goings at the airport “never affect us”.

“Even sat in the garden, it’s quite nice to hear them now and again,” he says.

Claire adds: “I used to live on Brownberrie Lane under the flight path and it never bothered us there with having double glazing. You just get used to the noise.”

However, John, another life-long Horsforth resident, says he believes the general increase in flights from Leeds Bradford is “detrimental”.

“It’s got worse over the last few years,” he says.

“Thirty years ago we used to get jumbo jets coming over, but it seems noisier now.

“The planes seem to be taking off both ways now and we get woken up at night, which is not great.”

While it is “good for the economy”, it is “not good for the local areas”, John says.

In Menston, on the north west side of the runway, David Crowther, 34, who has lived in the village for the last five years, says he uses the airport a lot for work.

“It’s nice to have a busy airport that flies to more destinations more regularly – and it’s good for the economy,” he says.

“But with the noise and living under a flight path – those are the consequences you have to live with.”

Jo Hudson, 47, from nearby Otley, who walks her dog in Menston, says while she does not fly, she agrees the airport is good for the local economy.

“There are plenty of people who work up there,” she says.

“It’s got to be done. If people want to go on holiday, you’ve got to have a bigger airport.”