How to make a noise complaint

You may still currently access the online noise submission form via our FAQs page.

London Southend Airport has been listening to the local community and understands that residents want more transparency and a noise complaints service similar to those used by the larger UK airports.

As part of a major upgrade to our Noise Complaints Handling Service, London Southend Airport has implemented a new online self-service complaint system called “WebTrak” which enables the user to view all aircraft movements in the vicinity of Southend Airport to see what aircraft flew where and what height.

This is the easiest, quickest, and most efficient way of registering your noise complaint.

Other airports that currently use WebTrak include;

London Heathrow Airport
London Gatwick Airport
London Stansted Airport
Manchester Airport
Biggin Hill Airport
East Midlands Airport
Bournemouth Airport
Farnborough Airport
Glasgow Airport
Newcastle Airport

WebTrak enables you to:

Locate your address on a map showing all overhead aircraft operations
Look at details of individual flights as they take off or land at London Southend Airport, detailing the type of aircraft, height and operation, within 10 km and up to 1 km in altitude.
Look at specific flights over different day/time periods (within a two-week timeframe)
Confirm whether the flight that disturbed you was compliant and operating within the airports agreed controls
Record a noise complaint
See aircraft operations displayed just 20 minutes behind real time.

Monitoring Flight Track and Noise Data

London Southend Airport monitors and records all flight track and noise data regardless of whether we have received a complaint from a member of the public or not.

Since introducing Noise Preferential Routes in March 2012, 99.8% of all aircraft (above 5700kg) have departed within the agreed control areas. For further information on our Noise Preferential Routes click here

If we find that an aircraft has breached a Noise Preferential Route, the airport will investigate further with the airline concerned.

In the event of an aircraft flying off track, we will also contact our Air Traffic Control team to see if there was a specific reason for the track deviation e.g. bad weather avoidance or conflicting air traffic.

How to use WebTrak Video Guide

How to use WebTrak instructions

Click here for a quick 6 step guide

Step 1

Read the following steps and enter WebTrak via the below link.

Step 2

Use the ‘Quick Start Guide’ on the top left corner of the screen.

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Top Tip: Each tab will give you instructions on how to navigate Webtrak and provide detailed information about using the system.

Step 3

Use the home home icon icon to locate yourself on the map

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Step 4

To identify a specific flight, go to the bottom left hand side of the screen and click on ‘Historical’, then select the date from the calendar.

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Step 5

Once you have found the correct date/time, you will be able to see all of the aircraft that were flying at the time of your disturbance.

Departing flights are shown in green, arriving flights are shown in red and overflights (not landing or taking off from London Southend) are shown in blue.

(Please note not all these flights will have departed or arrived at London Southend Airport, if the flight is an arrival or departure for a different airport, we will not investigate it or record it as a complaint)

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Step 6

Access WebTrak

Click here to access WebTrak.

Next Steps

If the flight you have registered a complaint about is a compliant flight you will receive a confirmation email from the airport within 24 hours. Your complaint will be logged in our system but no further action will be taken.

If the flight is non-compliant you will receive a confirmation email within 24 hours and then a further email within 7 – 10 days providing further details of the non-compliant flight.

Making multiple complaints about the same aircraft operation

The airport will not include multiple complaints made from the same person about the same aircraft operation in any noise reports provided to local stakeholders.

General Complaints

If you wish to make a general complaint about aircraft noise, engine testing or unusual odour that concerns you, please use our general enquiry form here.

Please provide as much detail as possible to enable us to investigate and we will aim to respond by email within 7-10 days.

Reporting

A detailed summary of all complaints will be shared with the London Southend Airport Consultative Committee (LSACC) and our local stakeholders.

Minutes of past LSACC meetings can be found here.

An annual summary of all complaints is provided in the London Southend Airport Annual Report here.

Whilst complaints regarding compliant aircraft movements will not stop operations or alter flight paths, enquiries and complaints from the local community help us to understand how different locations around the airport are impacted by Southend Airport aircraft movements.

The Airport management team will continue to work with our local stakeholders and airline partners to make positive changes where possible and practicable.

Contact details

To contact the Noise Manager email: lsa.noisemanager@southendairport.com

You can also contact the Noise Manager via letter:
Noise Manager
London Southend Airport
Southend on Sea
Essex
SS2 6YF

We aim to respond to all enquiries within 7 - 10 working days.

FAQs on WebTrak

Why have you changed the noise complaints system?

London Southend Airport has been listening to the local community and understands that residents want more transparency and a noise complaints service similar to those used by the larger UK airports. This is the easiest, quickest, and most efficient way of registering your noise complaint.

What if I can’t find the flight that disturbed me?

It may be that you have noted an incorrect date or time. WebTrak allows you to view other flights before and after the time specified. It may also be that the noise that disturbed you was not related to a Southend Airport operation.

Will the noise data collected by WebTrak be comparable with data previously published by the Airport?

Yes. WebTrak is a system which works with the airports existing NoiseDesk software. The reports generated will be exactly the same and the information provided to our stakeholders will not change.

Will the Airport ban or stop residents for making too many complaints on WebTrak?

No. The Airport fully expects noise complaint numbers to rise with the introduction of WebTrak, as has been evidenced at other UK airports using the same system. We expect residents to find this system easier to use and more informative. Whilst duplicate complaints about the same aircraft operations will not be reported, the airport will not discourage or ban anyone from making numerous unique complaints.

Where does WebTrak get the data?

WebTrak sources data directly from the airport’s secondary radar.

A back-up radar feed from London Stansted Airport is available when required.

Why does the height shown on WebTrak differ to my Flight tracker App on my mobile?

WebTrak is using the secondary radar data that the airport uses for managing aircraft operations.

Secondary radar uses an airborne transponder which responds to the receipt of a pulse from a ground-based antenna by transmitting a return signal. Because the transponder transmits a much stronger signal than that which is reflected off an aircraft in primary radar systems, greater range and reliability can be achieved with secondary radar.

Radar data publicly available flight tracking websites (such as FlightRadar24) use crowd sourced data collected from privately owned ADS-B receivers which receive data from the aircraft as they pass overhead.

These different data sources can mean that aircraft operations may appear different between WebTrak and other publicly available aircraft tracking systems.

In addition to this, WebTrak displays the altitude of aircraft operations as Above Mean Sea Level (AMSL) and corrected for air pressure. This may not be the case for some publicly available flight tracking systems and is likely to be the reason for differences between the sites.