EDINBURGH AIRPORT

Coastal towns fear impact of planned move

Proposed changes to flight paths have fuelled concerns about the potential impact the move might have on the lives of many Fifers.

Several communities across the region aired their views during the first phase of the airport’s consultation, with people in the coastal towns of Kinghorn, Dalgety Bay, Limekilns and Culross in particular among those claiming that they have already seen and heard more aircraft in the past year than ever before.

That was put down to a prolonged period of easterly wind and more flights to Scandinavia and North America, but residents in the likes of Kinghorn said they feared for the future.

Kinghorn Community Council chairman Alan McIlravie said people’s perception of the number of flights overhead may have been heightened by the airport’s consultation over flight path changes, but he stressed: “I believe there are more flights over Kinghorn than I ever remember, and I grew up here.

“While I don’t think the number of flights at the moment is to the detriment of the life here in Kinghorn, the worry is if this is what we have now and we become an established flight path with an increasing number of flights, where will we be in a few years’ time?”

“If we are to be underneath an established flight path we wonder if that could have a negative impact on our ability to attract tourists to the coastal path.”

Kinghorn residents Terry and Jennifer Combes moved to the village two years ago from Livingston to escape the continual noise of aircraft.

Jennifer said: “When we bought our house there were no aircraft flying over.

“There seems to have been an exceptional increase of late.

“Some days we don’t hear any but other days there’s a constant number of aircraft flying over.

“This is a very quiet, small coastal town that is being spoilt by this increased noise level.”