by Ray Saunt

The airport was established in about 1912 as a light airfield known as Rochford Aerodrome, just with grass to take off and land into which ever way the wind was blowing. The aerodrome apparently played a useful role during the war.

In 1954, Southend Council wanted to lay the hard runways which we have today. Prior to this, a petition of over 9,000 signatures was gathered throughout Leigh, Westcliff and Rochford opposing this plan. The petition was totally ignored and the runways were laid to fit into the longest stretch of the odd shaped field. That unfortunately turned out to be direction 06 – 24, pointing straight at Leigh. There is also the shorter cross runway 15 – 33 which for some reason has not been used for years. Understand that consideration was given to perhaps laying the main runway in direction 09 – 27 (due east/west) to avoid Leigh, but this was rejected on the grounds that it would have been shorter than 06 – 24.

After which a well established Alderman on Southend Council announced in the Southend Standard, ‘Bigger and Noisier Planes for Leigh and if the Residents don’t like it, they can lump it’.

Then the noise started firstly with the Bristol Freighters grinding overhead, with the Airport in its ‘heyday’ by the early 1960s. The complaints and noise levels got so bad that in 1965, urgent consideration was given to extending runway 15 – 33, north westwards out over what is still mostly open country. This could have diverted up to 60% of the noise away from Leigh and part of Rochford. Understandably, residents of Hawkwell, Hockley and Southend east were not very pleased with this prospect, although it may not have affected them as badly as Leigh – the noise at least would have been broken up. This went to public enquiry and the Government Inspectorate of the day rejected this on environmental grounds, so we have been stuck with the concentration of noise over one area ever since and now this would be even worse if the extension of 06 – 24 went ahead. How could a Government Inspector allow this today after rejecting a lesser application for 15 – 33 in 1967?

In 1967 a BAC 1-11 starting operating out of here at 03.30hrs on a Sunday morning for a period of 13 weeks, offering holiday makers £2.10 off their holidays if they flew out at night, on the basis that an aircraft is only making money whilst in the air and keeping the operation viable. Bear in mind that was the old style noisy BAC 1-11 that was banned from many airports during the day, until they changed to more modern quieter engines, yet Southend allowed this at night. This seemed to lead to the downfall of Channel Airways who went into demise and things were noticeably quieter in the following years.

Whilst there had always been a few night flights over the years, they had not been a major problem until regular freight flights started up in 1977, firstly with a Herald going out at 01.50hrs. each night. Complaints were made about this, only to be met with the response that it was not a ‘scheduled’ flight so there was no need to worry. This continued and further complaints followed. We were then told it was in fact a ‘regular’ flight, but not a ‘scheduled’ flight. What difference does this make when it comes to the disturbance caused?! Shortly after this, a second Herald started up a similar operation at 03.50hrs. each night, splitting the night into three parts, thus maximising the disturbance. Then several Viscounts started flying out each night from 00.30hrs.

We then reached a stage in the 1980′s where there were more night flights than during the day.

When Regional Airports Ltd. took over at the begining of the 1990′s, things began to improve and for the last few years there have been no regular night flights. It seemed they listened to the people and let’s hope this remains the case.

All this can be verified in the archives of the old Southend Standard and Evening Echo, which have been packed with complaints over the years.