I HOPE Mrs Saunders can sleep well at night. She wrote (Letters, April 18) that she has lived close to a flight path but that it never bothered her and reminded readers that the airport had been there for 80 years.

It is to be hoped that she and many thousands of residents who live nearby or under the flight path all sleep soundly.

I feel for the residents of Southampton Road and adjacent roads who, when they bought their properties, often many years ago, had no idea of the intensity of traffic noise, air pollution, dirt and disturbance to their lives that they are now subject to. In addition, they face the opening of the cinema complex in the coming months and traffic disruption through road repairs in the summer and autumn.

Given that the air quality in Southampton Road was already 1.5 times safe limits in 2007 (60 microgrammes per cubic metre) and that it is probably set to get worse, these people can certainly anticipate a decline in aspects of their quality of life. Might they not also expect some public sympathy?

DR ANDREW C ROSS, Eastleigh.