Updated Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance (HIWAA) has now submitted a planning application to move its helipad to its proposed new site, close to the southern edge of Southampton Airport.
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The site, in George Curl Way, would also include other facilities such as offices, and is relatively close to parts of Eastleigh, and Southampton’s Bitterne Park ward.
George Curl Way in relation to the airport, Townhill Park and Bitterne Park. Image: Google
HIOWAA has said the site is better because it’s more central than its current base near Andover, so it will be able to “respond to more patients faster than ever before”.
The charity said in materials accompanying its own, now closed, consultation process [page 5] that, “One of the reasons for this being a preferred site is because the existing noise of commercial flights will largely mask our own movements”.
It added that it had “carried out detailed work to identify the impact of our lifesaving flights in terms of decibels”, and noise would be “sufficiently low” at the closest residential dwellings "to accord with the ‘No Observed Adverse Effect’”.
However as previously noted, while the airport’s overnight flying hours are restricted, the helicopter reponds to incidents 24/7. Last year it said it responded on average to just over five missions a day.
HIOWAA recently reported back on its website about its consultation process, saying: “More than 97% of the feedback was in favour of the proposals. And while some concerns were raised regarding noise from the helicopter and any potential conflict with commercial flights, the overwhelming majority of responses were driven by people wishing to show their support and wishing us well in the future.”
The planning application is here. - seach for ref F/24/97188.
Updated 17/4/24 with links to planning application as it had not been published on EBC's site at the time of writing