OPPONENTS of a new flightpath trial at Edinburgh Airport have described as “disingenuous” its report into the experiment.

Edinburgh Airport admitted that complaints peaked during last year’s TUTUR trial period with 7,934 being made by 567 people. It said more than 57 per cent of complaints were not about TUTUR flights but concerned aircraft operating on flightpaths that had existed since the runway was built in the 1970s. The airport claimed that 40 per cent of complaints had been received from five individuals.

However, Helena Paul from Stop Edinburgh Airspace Trial (SEAT) told The National: “This is such a disingenuous take it defies belief – it is downright irresponsible.”

She said it was inappropriate that the same organisation that stood to benefit from a new flightpath was allowed to manage complaints and communications about its operations without independent scrutiny.

“We have no means of knowing whether all communications and complaints have been properly recorded by the airport,” she said.

“We know that many critical comments were removed from their Facebook page, for instance. In one case a resident made over 650 complaints about aircraft noise yet the airport has advised that they have recorded only “over 300” complaints from that individual”.

Paul, from Blackness, West Lothian, said SEAT believed the reported complaints the airport received during the trial was a “significant undercounting” and an inadequate measure of the anger felt in communities.

“There were also over 1,200 signatures gathered on an online petition, with numerous paper petitions also circulated in many areas,” she added. “Noise complaints to the airport rocketed from a relatively steady 10-20 a quarter before the trial to nearly 8,000 during it, indicating a serious problem with the design of the trial and the manner it was conducted.

“Disturbance from aircraft noise has not stopped. Since the trial ended, many people across a wide area are now reporting problems with aircraft noise that did not exist previously. It is clear to thousands of people that the airport has changed the pattern of use of other flightpaths, despite denying that it has done so.”

An airport spokesman said its report showed the viability of one-minute separation times between aircraft departures at peak times, but added: “While the trial was a success – there is still work to do both technically and with our neighbouring communities.

“The majority of complaints received during the trial period came from a relatively small number of people who live in pockets of communities in West Lothian. While the majority of these complaints did not relate to flights on the TUTUR flight path, we take our neighbours’ concerns seriously.

“Our decision on TUTUR will be not be taken hastily.”