The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Flight path concerns lead to noise monitors landing in Fife gardens
SNP councillor has noise monitoring station set up in his garden following suggestion to airport officials
Edinburgh Airport bosses have installed temporary noise monitoring stations in south-west Fife following concerns about the proposed flight path.
One microphone has been erected in the Hillend garden of SNP councillor David Barrett’s home after he offered his land at a drop-in session earlier this year.
Mr Barrett said the decision to install the temporary stations – for around two weeks at a time – was “a bit of a compromise” but accepted it was better than nothing.
He said: “The idea for monitoring stations came from one of the drop-in sessions Edinburgh Airport was running about flight path plans. I put forward that their data relied on assumptions and info collected outside of Fife.
“One of the key complaints has been that they have no noise monitoring in Fife and I have been trying to push for that. I had asked they install monitoring and develop at least a year’s baseline before any proposals were implemented.
“It’s a bit of a compromise in that, rather than installing a long-term
“It won’t be for a full year and it will be in various locations. It’s not perfect but it’s something. I offered for them to put one in my garden and they have now done that. SNP COUNCILLOR DAVID BARRETT
recording station, they’re installing ones such as that on my driveway for two or three weeks at a time and moving them about to try to develop baseline data.
“It won’t be for a full year and it will be in various locations. It’s not perfect but it’s something. I offered for them to put one in my garden and they have now done that. I know of at least two monitoring stations and there may be one other.
“They’ve pushed the proposal forward so it’s now a case of lobbying the CAA, telling them not to implement it, because it’s not right when you haven’t got sufficient baseline data.
“One of the problems throughout the consultation process has been that it’s not easy for anyone to comprehend, having read very technical reports, what the impact will actually be.
“I don’t think it’s the right way to go about things, having predictions based on modelling which isn’t calibrated to Fife and is based off data from Gatwick and then not have adequate baseline data to then validate your predictions which you’ve told everyone.”
Concerns were raised about increased noise levels in Fife if the proposed E7A flight path is given a go-ahead. A public meeting in Inverkeithing was previously told the new route would create as much noise as a “busy road side from five metres away” from 6am, every day.
A spokesman for Edinburgh Airport said: “We’ve listened to communities and have been proactive with these monitors, which will allow us to get a better understanding of noise in areas of Fife and obtain information which will influence future noise mapping and mitigation.”