Model club can keep flying

Eastbourne and District Model Flying Club have been granted permission to continue using land west of Uckfield Road, Stoneham, in Ringmer to fly model planes - as they have done for the last seven years.

But residents of the area said the club has caused misery to them at weekends.

Hamsey Parish Council objected to the application which was granted by Lewes District Council on Wednesday.

A spokesperson for the the parish council said: 'The noise generated by this activity is at odds with this quiet rural area.

'The Eastbourne Flying Club is not local and yet causes misery to our residents at weekends, bank holidays and evenings when people want to be enjoying the peaceful surroundings.

'Despite complaints, the club has failed to modify or control this noise nuisance at all and operates from an area adjacent to the proposed South Downs National Park.'

But Alan Fry, of The Highway, Newhaven, who flies with the club, said: 'The noise very much depends on the model. In the main there is not a great deal of noise.

'We fly so that the prevailing wind takes any noise we do make away from the villagers. Sometimes you can hear them, just as you can hear road traffic, we are very much in that realm.'

Mr Fry said without the land to fly on the club would have had trouble finding anywhere else.

He said: 'They are very difficult to find and to be honest the one we have got is about as remote as it is possible to get in this part of the world. We comply with all the rules we are supposed to, we are well outside the distances from houses we need to comply with, there is not a lot more we can do.'

Lewes District Council received 30 objection letters but agreed to allow the continued use of the land until February 28 2009 and a noise assessment be made before that date.

The council also stipulated no more than three internal combustion planes be in the air at one time and restricted the use of them to Thursdays from 10am to 8pm and Saturdays 10am-4pm.

Only silent electric or glider planes can be used at other times.

A 300 metre fly zone has also been enforced, except in the case of an emergency.