Model club bid rejected
Oswestry's model flying enthusiasts have lost their bid to fly their machines more often after protests from villagers living nearby.
The club is already allowed to fly from Maesbury for up to 28 days a year but organisers had applied for official planning permission for the site.
This would have allowed flights any day of the year with restrictions only on hours of flying, and only to machines at any one time.
Last night Oswestry Borough Council's development control committee voted against planning permission.
People living in Maesbury had objected. Spokesman, Ian Chapman, said there were concerns over noise and over cars parking on the lanes leading to the site.
Mervyn Davies, from the flying club, stressed that the club restricted to decibels from the aircraft with its own noise machine and would insist that members parked in the field and not on the roads.
He said the club would welcome villagers to go along and join in and said members did not want to fall out with local people.
Councillors were told that a test flight recorded by special noise equipment had shown only a modest increase in noise levels when the model aircraft were flying. The major noise source had been traffic on the road, they were told.
But Councillor Brian Ashton said: "Having a constant whine of a model aircraft when you are trying to enjoy some time in your back garden would be like the constant drip of a tap, very intrusive."
