The "vast majority" of people in a north Norfolk village support military jets training overhead despite the noise they produce, its parish council chairman has said.

It follows a complaint over aircraft noise made to Briston Parish Council made by a resident, which the council felt obliged to discuss at its June 14 meeting.

Peter Moulton, council chairman, said councillors decided not to pursue the matter further, but then after further comments from the resident, a post was put on the council's Facebook page to survey public opinion.

Mr Moulton said that while aircraft noise was part of life in the village, responses to the Facebook post indicated most residents did not consider it an issue.

He said: "The survey has proven that we were right in our actions to begin with.

"[The noise] can be excessive. But wherever you go in the country there's something, it just happens we have aircraft noise.

"We always have been a bit of an aircraft carrier for the Americans, and in the last war that served us very well.

"The air bases are also quite important to the economy - they're virtually like villages on their own and if they weren't there places like Mildenhall would turn into ghost towns."

Mr Moulton said aircraft noise from US Airforce aircraft had been noticeable in the weeks before President Joe Biden flew into RAF Mildenhall earlier in June ahead of the G7 summit.

The parish council's post asked residents: Do you think that the number of flights has increased recently? Is the noise a significant nuisance to you and your family? Is this something we should complain about?

Mr Moulton said people were able to respond by commenting publicly on the post, or by private message.

He said there were about 100 responses, and although some people said the aircraft noise was too much, the "vast majority" did not consider it a nuisance.

It follows North Norfolk MP Duncan Baker raising the issue of excessive aircraft noise in the House of Commons.

North Norfolk News: Duncan Baker, MP for North NorfolkDuncan Baker, MP for North Norfolk (Image: Archant)

Mr Baker said his office had been "inundated" with calls from residents concerned over the issue.