Residents hit out at Dunsfold Park ‘roaring engines and screeching tyres’
The future of driving experience days at the Top Gear test track near Cranleigh hangs in the air.
Planning permission ran out at the end of April and Dunsfold Airport Ltd have applied for a third extension to allow their track days to continue until 2024.
Consent first granted in 2012 was temporary because long-term the Waverley Borough Council wants to site hundreds of houses at Dunsfold Park.
Councillors on the borough council’s Eastern planning committee voted last night (September 28) to delay a decision to receive more information on how noise will be monitored following residents’ concerns.
Tom Gordon lives 450 metres from the track and since 2018 has had permission to run a wedding venue from his farm.
He told the planning committee on Tuesday evening: “Like many of my neighbours, for years we’ve endured the often relentless noise of roaring engines and screeching tyres from the track day events.
“We soon reached the point where we stopped complaining, not because the noise ceased to be a cause of anxiety or nuisance, but because it became very clear that nothing would, or rather could, be done about it.”
Jamie McAllister, speaking on behalf of the applicant, said: “I would ask you that you consider this is not a resident complaining about impact on local amenity, but a new commercial organisation whose interests are not aligned with those at Dunsfold Park.
“A new development should not fetter the ability of existing businesses to continue.”
He added: “We are not a motorsport facility.
“It is not racing. It is is about giving ordinary members of the public the opportunity to drive extraordinary cars, but in an orderly manner.”
Mr McAllister said noise did not go above 60 decibels, the level of normal conversation, and covid lockdowns had led to a “more sensitive subjective assessment of noise as activities have picked up again”.
But Mr Gordon said the noise management plan was not suitable or in line with modern practices. “Twice as much of the track is closer to my home than the monitor,” he said.
Councillor John Gray (Con, Chiddingfold and Dunsfold) said: “This affects the whole of Dunsfold. You can hear these track days down in the church, that’s over a mile away. The noise is polluting.
“There was some understanding locally with things like Top Gear, where there was a certain amount of significance and association with it, but these are just track days.
“This committee has got to be mindful of seven years of complaints, seven years in which locals have been trying to get something done.”
The driving experience days are limited to 30 a year, but Cllr Gray said there could be 10-15 events in one month and on up to five consecutive days.