Idiots who move next door to a racetrack

peterattheboro

peterattheboro

peterattheboro

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A Suffolk motor sports stadium has won its appeal against a couple who bought a house nearby and sued over the noise.

Raymond Shields and Katherine Lawrence said they were unaware Mildenhall stadium was 500 yards away when they moved to West Row in 2006.

They won £20,000 in damages from the stadium at the High Court last year, but the Appeal Court has overturned that decision.

The couple was ordered to pay £85,000 interim legal costs by the court.

The stadium is used for Mildenhall Fen Tigers speedway meetings, stock car racing and motocross, as well as for greyhound racing, and planning permission dates back to 1975.

At the High Court hearing last year, the couple were awarded the £20,000 in their nuisance case against the stadium's owners and operators.
'Tiddlywinks and greyhounds'

Lord Justice Jackson, one of three judges in court, said: "The outcome of this litigation will be a disaster for the claimants, a fact which I regret.

"On the other hand, their predicament is a consequence of their decision to purchase a house in an area where motor sports were an established activity.

"The noise of motor sports emanating from the track are an established part of the character of the locality."

The couple's lawyers had argued that the noise from the stadium drove them out of their garden, forced them to change the layout of their home and to erect a wall made of straw bales around their home.

Speaking after the decision, David Coventry, one of the the stadium's owners, said: "This time last year I was faced with a draft judgement along the lines that restrictions would be so severe that we wouldn't be able to stage anything other than the quietest of things like tiddlywinks and greyhounds and we were facing £1m in costs.

"The noise generated can be heard in the distance and everyone accepts that, just as they accept aeroplanes flying over every few minutes with RAF Mildenhall next door."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-17182211

It's these types of ****s who have ruined my beloved Croft Circuit. Move next to an active racetrack and then complain about the noise. Croft had to cut most of their events because of these idiots and they also recieved a massive lump sum in compensation. Croft was there before you were, pal.

Link here

Similar cases have happened before with other circuits. I think Donnington was one of them.
 
Looks more to me like they "accidentally on purpose" moved in. What baffles me is who the hell decided to order £20,000 "damages". What was damaged exactly? Their Sunday afternoon? Should do your damn research before you move into a house, look around the area and ask the locals. It's really not hard.

People want to be spoon fed everything and then complain and sue when it's right for them. Get real.

/rant over
 
I would never awarded that. The race track was established long before they moved in. Simply it's their fault.

There's a sort of similar case here in Edinburgh. A street next to a rail depo has made a complaint about late noise. Due to changes in contract train engines are now left running all night while they are cleaned, due to more trains being serviced there. I think it's a case of the neighbours knowing and appreciating there would be noise but this was taking things too far. Last I read EastCoast (or who ever the operator is) are in talks to construct a sound wall and reviewing the operating hours.
 
For me, that's the correct decision. I mean the racetrack was there first, a tiny amount of research into the local area would have prevented all this.
 
Castle Combe had the same problem and had to stop running F3 and GT meeting due to the noise restrictions. Think they had big problems around this time due to the heavily reduced funding.
 
A woman a couple of doors down moved in a few years ago and has written noise complaints to everyone including the small delivery company (established 1962) on our street due to noise from vans (it only operates from 8-5pm!).

she has also made complaints about our chickens (its the countryside!!) and the noise of my car..

the funny thing is she is profoundly deaf!! she blames all these things on her children not sleeping... maybe its their mental busy body mother that makes them anxious so they cannot sleep!!
 
How could they not know a racetrack was 500 yeards away ? its like moving next to a football stadium then complaining that its noisy on saturday.

£85,000 lesson in common sense for them.
 
It's similar with the whole "runway three" story and London Airports. Everyone wants flights from Heathrow, because of access and interconnections. Every airline wants to fly from Heathrow, because of access, interconnections and interest from customers. But forever and ever there is a discussion, how third runway would ruin lives of dummies who moved in and around Heathrow. Like landing every 6 seconds behind the window wasn't clue enough when they were standing there with real estate agent, viewing the darn place.

Now this simple never ending debacle created one of the most bizarre situations in Western world. At first, an airport 30 miles south of London, in Gatwick was adopted for commercial flights, billions were spent, rail tracks were laid, runways were extended. Then everyone returned to discussions how everyone wants to fly from Heathrow, not from some es-hole 30 miles south. So they adopted another airport, 35 miles north, in Luton. Billions were spent. Roads were paved. Runway was extended. Then everyone returned to discussing Heathrow, and how extra capacity there is needed. Because everyone wants to fly from there. But environmental issues wouldn't allow for it happen. So they found another place, 30 miles north east-ish from London, in Stansted. Billions were spent, rail tracks were laid, runways were expanded. Then everyone returned to the discussion, how extra runways are needed at Heathrow, because everyone wants flights from Heathrow. And then environmental issues would not allow for it to happen. So they found another place... and so the story continued until London, as the only capital in Europe and beyond, had 6 active mass passenger airports :
London Heathrow (LHY)
London Luton (LTN)
London Stansted (STN)
London Gatwick (LGW)
London City (LCY)
London Southend (SEN) (currently under expansion for international flights from March 2012)

plus 5 small, private flights and commercial transit airports:
London Biggin Hill (15 miles from London)
Lydd Airport (50 miles)
London Oxford (60 miles)
London Farnborough (32 miles)
Kent International Airport (65 miles)

and that's before you even start listing military, school and hired out airports like Lasham, Northolt, Duxford or Fairoaks.

So, when few years ago airlines started petitioning Mayor of London to expend Heathrow (since you know, everyone wants to fly and be flown from there), there was only one thing Mayor Of London could possibly come back with.

London Thames Estuary Airport project on Isle Of Grain, 34 miles outside London.

Because it's only fair we shall foxtrot it for everyone within M25, north south, east and beyond, tens of billions of pounds at the time. As long as we keep few NIMBY's in Hillingdon who invested in property under Heathrows flightpath happy.
 
£85k though! That's ridiculous. I'd have to go bankrupt unless the courts have an ok APR.
 
We have a Travel Lodge that was built near my place of work last year.

They then tried to get a local pub to stop it's Friday & Sat night music sessions, something they've been doing for the 4+ years I've worked in Newcastle. It would have meant the pub would have to of shut down as it's what keeps them afloat!

Luckily the pub won!
 
Those sort of muppets drive me nuts.

It's like the people that buy a nice house in the countryside, then complain that a church that has been there for 500+ years has bell ringers on a Sunday or for weddings.

If you buy a house, you should not be able to complain about something that has had planning permission/been there for years prior to you buying the house, unless it changes for the worse (IE you should not be able to buy a house near a Business, then complain that the noise from the business is too loud).
 
Werewolf said:
Those sort of muppets drive me nuts.

It's like the people that buy a nice house in the countryside, then complain that a church that has been there for 500+ years has bell ringers on a Sunday or for weddings.

If you buy a house, you should not be able to complain about something that has had planning permission/been there for years prior to you buying the house, unless it changes for the worse (IE you should not be able to buy a house near a Business, then complain that the noise from the business is too loud).
Click to expand...

Precisely. If the racetrack had been used since 1975 for motocross racing then all of a sudden decided they wanted to race 747s up and down a runway, fair enough. Kick up a fuss. But to complain about something that's been there operating as it is for 35 years, hmmm... I smell money grabbers.

I think this 85k slap they got is really just the courts way of making an examples of compensation hunters.
 
Tute said:
For me, that's the correct decision. I mean the racetrack was there first, a tiny amount of research into the local area would have prevented all this.
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Agreed.

They'd have a point if the racetrack owners increased the noise levels or if they could reasonably do something to reduce the noise and hadn't done it, but not just because it's there (and had been for 30 years before they bought the house).

It is a shame that it's cost them so much, though.
 
Finally common sense wins out, and a good punishment for the muppets who brought the case (and I really don't care if it bankrupts them and ruins their lives, would serve them right frankly).

Just a shame the damage has already been done by similar idiots up and down the country complaining about racetracks that were there before the house was even built. Brands GP only has a few days a year which makes it insanely expensive (even by racing weekend standards) just because an estate built long after the track complained about the noise :(
 
Schools are another one. People move into roads where schools are located and then whinge about the fact that people park there twice a day.
 
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