F1 test court battle begins

8:33am Tuesday 20th May 2008

RESIDENTS have begun their long-awaited final court battle against noisy Formula One testing near their homes.

People living near Elvington Airfield have long complained that motor sport activities at the former RAF base are too loud and disrupt their lives.

But the company that runs it, Elvington Park Ltd, objected to a formal notice from City of York Council telling it to keep the noise levels down.

After years of court hearings, a five-day appeal began yesterday which residents hope will settle the matter once and for all.

"Since 2000, the use of the site for motor sports has increased and there is no doubt that it is this increase that has led to many complaints from members of the public who live near the site," said the council's barrister Stephen Sauvain QC at York Crown Court.

Among the activities hosted by Elvington Park Ltd, which took over the airfield in 2000, is testing of Formula One cars.

Mr Sauvain alleged the authority in charge of Formula One racing had changed its regulations recently so that instead of 11 and a half minutes of testing, cars now needed two and a half hours, though not in a single block of time.

He claimed that since the last hearing in January, the company had improved the way it told local residents when noisy events would occur, and that it had kept to the terms of an agreement made at court with the council. But it had not reduced noise levels.

For the company, Robert Wald accused the council of changing its mind the day after the January court hearing and claimed the company had acted appropriately in the "collapse of good faith and atmosphere between the two parties."

Both sides agree residents suffer from the noise. The council wants the court to impose an order telling the company to reduce the noise nuisance. The company wants an order stating what motor sport events should be held. But the council claims regulating the type of events would not control noise levels sufficiently. Several Elvington area residents were in court for the hearing, which continues.

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