Please take the time to read Mr Plant's story. Basically, he is trying to raise money to replace his caravan. All he wants is somewhere quiet and peaceful to live with enough room to continue with his engineering projects. The caravan he currently lives in, on an ex travellers site, is now beyond repair and needs to be replaced. He has found a static caravan that would be perfect for him, and as it's nearby wouldn't cost a lot to move to where he is.

"At age 16 in 1960 I joined the RAF straight from school as an Apprentice at the RAF Number One Radio school, RAF Locking. I was one of 168 members of the 96th entry. After 3 years training as an Air Radio Fitter, I graduated with the highest marks of all 168 apprentices in the 96th Entry. I was dual trade, Radar and Wireless, the hardest course. Most other apprentices were only single trade, Radar or Wireless.

On graduation I was awarded the Air Ministry Prize for highest marks for Air Radio fitter.

My main job was servicing the Air Intercept Radar on Lightnings, Phantoms and several other types. I also equally serviced the communication equipment, navigation and missile control systems of many aircraft types. These were undoubtedly the most complex of all the aircraft systems as I had to know every single component in them and how to repair every part of them.

I did very well at those jobs and was often asked, by the Wing Commander Tech to do other development work, above and beyond my main trade, relating to the safety and security of various aircraft and work places. I was awarded several commendations and awards for my extra work, one in 1965, from the AOC RAF Germany.

I was promoted early to the rank of Sergeant at age 24.

After RAF Locking, I served at RAF Wattisham, Coltishall, Akrotiri, Gutersloh and Sealand with several detachments to other bases, UK and abroad.

But for 6 of those years, I worked and lived on those bases, never more than about 300 meters from the runways. The noise from all those aircraft was excessive and every day, including Sunday’s QRA take-offs by Lightning aircraft on their way to intercept the cold war Russian bombers that kept probing our UK defences.

The worst incident of aircraft noise I encountered was in 1964 at Akrotiri when I was “volunteered” to be fire marshal during a ground test of a Lightning’s engines. I was stood under the port wing at just arm’s length from the aircraft. The 5+5 minutes of full power engine noise was unbearable, even with the safety gear I was issued with at the time. I have since managed to calculate that the max noise I was subject to was 204dB. The safe max noise level is advised as 120dB, hearing damage occurs at 150dB.

I left the RAF in 1974 and qualified as a Manned Submersible Pilot and then worked for 11 years on all manner of deep-sea related jobs for the Oil industry and Military, including Mine clearance, Torpedo recovery, underwater explosives, very deep water (2700 feet) bomb disposal, crashed aircraft recovery and searches for divers who had been killed doing their jobs. I was working underwater for those jobs, not by remote control. In total I spent over 4000 hours underwater at depths down to 3000 feet.

1982 to 1984 I was the brains behind a £2million world leading remote controlled semi-autonomous welding machine for welding oil and gas pipes at depths too deep for divers to work at. It worked perfectly, performing to the world’s highest welding standard, higher even than that required to weld nuclear reactor cooling pipes.

1985 to 1991 I was an R&D manager/consultant for classified underwater mine clearance projects for NATO.

My tinnitus started in 1988 and has been continuous and worsening ever since. I don’t know why it started then as I was then working in a quiet office environment.

I have now continuous 24-7 whistling and ringing noises very similar to the jet engine roar I worked with during my RAF years, and sometimes sounds similar to two tone emergency sirens. It ended my high-level R&D work in the EU aerospace industry. As a manager I was required to partake in the Friday management meetings but my tinnitus drowned out the discussions. As a result, I was not able to be active in those meetings, just sat at the table and often regarded as a bit “dumb” by some of the other managers. I am anything but dumb but mud sticks and I had to withdraw from those meetings, and my work. That work and those meetings were in the German language which I learned and spoke fluently for that job.

That was the end of my professional career. My RAF training and work set me up well but the aircraft induced tinnitus brought my career to an end at age 44. I have not worked since, having to live on state benefits. I lost my mortgage, life insurance and house because I could no longer afford them.

I was a participant on the BBC2 TV show Robot Wars for 5 years from 1999 using my high-level engineering experience to build my robots for that show. They included The Mule, The Big Cheese and Wheely Big Cheese. They did well and I was invited back every year by the producers.

I am now often regarded as dumb or stupid by many, especially by officialdom as I cannot follow a conversation with more than one other person.

I am in fact highly intelligent so being regarded as dumb by many others because I cannot converse with them is terribly stressful.

Social or family meetings are now impossible for me, at them I cannot hear the conversation over my tinnitus and am just overwhelmed by a sea of sound which is incredibly stressful for me. I have to leave and find somewhere quiet to recover. I can now only cope with a conversation with no more than one other person and with no other noise present but I have to be within one meter of them and with the aid of some lip reading. The 2-meter social distance required by Covid makes that difficult for me. I can no longer listen to any music and have to use the subtitles to watch TV or films.

Sudden sounds such as low flying aircraft, loud engines, gunfire, TVs, music, church bells etc are very stressful to me. Occasionally a military jet or helicopter flies very low over my home. That sudden sound sends me into panic mode. It has a very similar effect on me as would a gun fired unexpectedly near to someone with PTSD.

The NHS can provide no effective help. I was given some NHS state-of-the-art hearing aids especially set up for me but I had to abandon them after just 3 days of use. They just amplified all sounds above the tinnitus level so I was in an even noisier environment.

I have had continuous tinnitus for 35 years and have worked out through experience how to cope with it. I have never found or been able to access any legal or medical expert who has any real understanding of my hearing and tinnitus problems.

Using my own money and resources I have tried since 1990 to cope with my tinnitus by finding quiet places where I can live but UK planners and officials have denied my every attempt.

In 1992 I bought a quiet and isolated 13-acre small holding where I was not visible by anyone and surrounded by trees and hills but I was refused planning permission to live there. Enforcement action was taken against me through the courts and I was sentenced to 6 months in prison, suspended for 6 months with the proviso that I move off my land. The judge would not accept any reference to my tinnitus as it could not be proven.

Sentenced to prison for trying to cope with my service induced tinnitus!

Since then, I have found other quiet places but always refused permission to live on them. I have been forced to move 8 times since then and 7 of those previous sites are now empty and derelict but still very good and quiet places to live.

In the latest court case, the judge refused to accept any evidence or to discuss my tinnitus as “it cannot be proven”.

In the RAF I often signed off fully armed military aircraft as “fit to fly to war” but in a civilian court the judge refused my evidence, even given under oath, about my tinnitus and how it affects my life and where I can live to cope with it. In my eyes that is the same as calling me a liar.

I served my country very well in the RAF, the Oil Industry and in mine clearance but I have been repeatedly refused a quiet corner of it to live in where I can cope with my service-related tinnitus.

I repeat that my tinnitus effectively ended my working career.

I am currently living on a remote and quiet ex-travellers site in an aging touring caravan but it needs replacing and that will cost me at least £5000. That replacement, but still good, mobile home should last me a good 10 to 15 years. It is currently privately owned and for sale. It is just 60 meters from where I live."