Petersham residents have complained after being awoken in the early hours last week by a helicopter landing on a nearby golf course.

Noise from the private helicopter disturbed sleeping residents at around 3am on Tuesday (May 11) and Wednesday (May 11) as it flew into Richmond Golf Club.

One resident from Sudbrook Lane, located next to the 18-hole course, described the night-time commotion as “unneighbourly”.

“It was an inconvenience for residents who were woken up not once, but twice. Some elderly people on the street were very worried,” he said.

Neighbours later discovered via social media that the helicopter had landed legally at the golf course in Sudbrook Park.

“We’re under a flight path to Battersea but those helicopters fly at high level and never at night. At first, I thought it was a celebrity, maybe Brad Pitt was back.

“Whoever it was must have paid a lot to land there, but we should have been consulted,” added the resident.

General Manager of Richmond Golf Club, John Maguire, denied the helicopter flew over private residences but apologised for inconvenience that might have been caused.

“I can confirm that two nights in a row we had a helicopter land here in the early hours, but definitely only one helicopter. We landed it in a different spot than our normal point at the rear of our Clubhouse, due to weather conditions at the time of landing.

“At no point did it overfly either Sudbrook Lane or any other residencies in the area, as I’m pretty sure Air Traffic give them a very specific flight path to avoid exactly this issue.”

“I was contacted by a resident from a local WhatsApp group about the noise and apologised profusely for any alarm or inconvenience caused, noting this was a one-off occurrence at this time of day. We try to do everything possible to maintain relationships with out near neighbours and those located on our boundary.”