Residents living on an estate in Hucknall which is just a field away from the M1 have said the sound of cars at night is "soothing". People living within 500 metres of the busy motorway were largely untroubled by the sounds, which was equated to mere 'background noise'.
Dan Morton moved to Bolingey Way, on the estate which is located to the west of Hucknall town centre, with his girlfriend Crystal Blair eight years ago. He told Nottinghamshire Live that the noise of traffic "doesn't bother us at all".
The 27-year-old joiner said: "It's actually that far away that it's quite soothing more than anything really, especially at night. It's just like a bit of background noise. It's alright here, although I'd rather go somewhere out the way, like the middle of a forest."
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Crystal, a 27-year-old care worker, said she had only recently realised the M1 was so close. "I didn't know it was there so it's not too much of a problem," she said. "The other day I was walking and I was thinking 'what're all those cars over there?' When you have kids you don't hear anything else."
Another resident, 42-year-old driving instructor Andrew Kyte, said: "You don't really hear it. The pigeons make more noise than the M1. You can clearly see the M1 from my son's window out the back of the house but you never hear much, to be honest.
"Through lockdown me and my son used to walk over and couldn't believe the difference in the volume of traffic. You wouldn't even know it was there. We're slightly lower down here so the noise may be just hitting the banks, and it's got a fair few hundred metres to travel."
Brian Dewberry has lived on the estate for around 30 years. The now 85-year-old, perched on his retro car in the mouth of his garage, said he had "got used to the noise". He went on: "It's like with any other things, like when Rolls Royce used to test their engines nearby, after a while you don't hear it."
One resident, Neethu Jose, said she could hear a "constant noise". "When we are out in the garden you can hear the noise," said the 36-year-old nurse. "It's a constant noise, when we go to bed and it's silent, we can hear it when we are trying to get to sleep."
However, she added that it didn't have much of an effect due to being a "good sleeper".
