Flight consult extended

Consultation to go on until May

Edinburgh Airport have extended the consultation period for their controversial new flight paths for a further week in May.

The airport has called on “everyone to have their say” as its representatives continue to meet with communities affected by the new flight paths.

Gordon Dewar, Edinburgh Airport’s chief executive, said: “We are greatly encouraged by the consultation response; the vibrant process is going well with a high level of quantity and quality of the responses. By the end of this stage of the consultation we will have attended more than 20 meetings in communities across West Lothian, Fife and Edinburgh. This has been a valuable listening exercise for us as well as giving us an opportunity to share information with our neighbouring communities. By continuing to raise awareness we will enable even more people to respond which will give us an even clearer understanding of the views from all those with an interest in this issue.”

The airport has extended the consultation as it comes under growing pressure from politicians and action groups who have criticised the process. Last month, Labour MSP for Lothian, Neil Findlay wrote to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) asking them to call a halt to the “shambolic” consultation.

Mr Findlay said: “It is crystal clear to me that this process is flawed. At all the packed public meetings I have attended people have repeatedly exposed the flaws in the process. They (Edinburgh Airport) have used out of date data, misrepresented how many people will be impacted, systematically ignored how current capacity is way below the 2007 figures and ‘lost’ 200 consultation responses.”

Winchburgh is one of the West Lothian villages where some of the residents have complained about the consultation process with one villager also writing to the CAA to complain about the procedure.

The next public meeting in West Lothian with airport representatives will be in Winchburgh on Wednesday, April 19, at Winchburgh Parish Church.

Fiona Hyslop SNP MSP for Linlithgow encouraged residents to go along.

She said: “I have met and written to Edinburgh Airport recently to discuss the concerns my constituents have regarding their proposed and preferred flight path routes and have encouraged my constituents to make their views known directly to the airport.

“The public meeting on April 19 is an opportunity for residents to ask their specific questions directly to the airport, to share their views on both the preferred and proposed routes that concern them.”

It is crystal clear to me that this process is flawed