Here's another link... http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=120105185386
Dear Mr Duddridge
Re your comments in this article -
I live in Lee-Over-Sands on Colne Point, St Osyth, Essex which is 15 miles away from the explosions from Shoeburyness - Despite what you think, the explosions are still going on, we've had peace and quiet over the winter and not many really big explosion vibrations until the last two weeks.
Every now and again they seem to test really massive explosions - which make all the houses in my road shake like there's an earthquake going on - yet Qinetic insist ground vibrations aren't possible - and its only air pressure, which is below their prescribed limits. The smaller ones aren't too bad and are tolerable - but when it makes your entire home shake... thats a different matter entirely. I work from my home as a software designer - when I moved to this area I had no idea how incredible the tremors were until several weeks after moving in - whilst the peace and quiet here is fabulous - and why I moved here, each time the tests go on - its not just humans that feel the effects here - even the birds in the SSSI sanctuary panic and fly making loud noises of fright.
Basically the issue for us here is not sound from the explosions - its vibration. Our homes are behind and surrounded partly by the sea wall defences, which seems to amplify the shockwave, and perhaps the geological structure of the land here seems to be particularly susceptible to this.
After many, many complaints to them most residents here start to give up with the process and don't see any point, because it just keeps going on and on! When you ring the company's complaints line you get the same old story about decibel levels. Of course an explosion sounds quieter in the air at a short distance - what they don't measure or consider is that sound travels underground in low frequency waves for a great distance - so this form of monitoring is inaccurate. Perhaps they are burying munitions and detonating them to reduce short distance noise - only causing us worse problems miles away!
Basically these sort of tests should be done in a very remote location - or limits should be put on magnitude of explosions. I fail to see how any IED in Afganistan can match these huge explosions scale wise - so I can't see how any of this is justified - Larger explosions should be done offshore on a distant uninhabited island in the outer reaches of the UK - not 20 or 30 miles from the capital and the most populated area of the UK.
Lots of residents who pay the taxes that allow the war to be fought in Afganistan have to deal with the noise and vibrations - remember that we fund this!
And did we as citizens want the war in Afganistan or approve it by referendum - no
I for one think your comments are typical for an MP - If you think its acceptable to tolerate your house being shaken - why not try it yourself!
Regards
Derek Foley
Derek Foley
Rather amusingly, I complained to their line at 11:44 and while I was on the phone to Carolyn Circus, three explosions went off shaking my house, and another single one minutes later.
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Update 21/04/2011
There is now a website where you can check for any "activity", or subscribe to email alerts, such as the one I received below.
http://www.qinetiq.com/home_shoeburyness/exceptional_activity.html
