Philpstoun News October 2015

Flight Path Trial Over Philpstoun - the low down So have you noticed the increase in planes flying over Philpstoun since the spring? It seems the community is divided by those that haven’t noticed at all and those who are frequently looking upward berating the trial of a new flight path (called TUTUR) for Edinburgh Airport which started in June and goes right over Philpstoun.

The Community Council has been involved in the debate by attending various meetings with Edinburgh Airport and here’s our take on the situation and what to do if you want to voice your concern….

What’s the trial for?Edinburgh Airport have said that the airport needs to grow. Passenger numbers are due to increase from 10 million today to 13 million by 2017. The runway and the airport have capacity for this, but the issue is that Edinburgh has a ‘peaky’ flow of passengers – lots first thing in the morning and at the end of the day. As a result planes queue up at these peak times between the airport buildings and the runway resulting in a ‘plane congestion’ and delays …. Something the airlines don’t like.

Philpstoun Community Council Page �1

South Bing

Work has started on the South Bing by Hunter Environmental to develop the Aggregate Recycling Plant. See Page 4 for our update on what’s happening.

Bowling Club Housing Plans

West Lothian Council has proposed a development of 5 social housing units on the site of the previous bowling clubhouse. The proposal from the council housing team has angered local residents and we are work ing wi th them and loca l councillors to try and get a more suitable proposal.

Railway Electrification Bridge Closures

T h e E d i n b u r g h - G l a s g o w electrification project requires the replacement of railway bridges to the east of Philpstoun by Lonsdale. The road will be closed from early November to Summer 2016 - pedestrian access will be maintained via a temporary bridge. The railway bridge by Kingsfield golf range will be subject to the same closure timetable.

PHILPSTOUN NEWS Philpstoun Community Council

EDINBURGH AIRPORT ARE HOSTING A DROP IN INFORMATION SESSION - TUESDAY 27th OCTOBER IN THE VILLAGE HALL - PLEASE COME ALONG!

The new TUTUR flight path

Philpstoun News October 2015

70% of the time planes depart from the airport in a westerly direction (into the prevailing wind), and they currently use a flight path over Livingston. This means they can only send a plane up every two minutes. With the introduction of this new TUTUR flight path they can send planes on alternate paths at one minute intervals, solving the congestion at the busiest times.

How do they decide how many and which planes fly over Philpstoun?The National Air Traffic Control centre choose which route planes follow based on their destination - currently they route all planes headed to northern and eastern Europe and the middle east on the new flight path over us. Planes headed south will continue to go over Livingston. If the wind is not from the west, planes all depart the other way out of the airport and we won’t see any planes at all.

If you have been following the planes, you’ll have noticed a bunch start coming over at around 6.15am – this starts with a commuter flight to Amsterdam followed by Rome, Venice etc. etc. There are less now than in the summer as ‘winter timetables’ are coming into effect, with fewer planes using the TUTUR route – if the route becomes permanent summer would be the busiest time. On average there have been 32 flights per day using the trial route.

How do they know where to fly and how high ?The planes follow a route called a SID (Standard Instrument Departure). The SID is essentially a line on the map that the pilots follow. It sets minimum altitudes that must be achieved by the plane. Only modern aircraft can achieve the rate of climb required, so the planes using the route are newer and a bit quieter. The SID route is shown as a line, but pilots are allowed to fly up to 1 mile either side. They need to be at a minimum of c3,600ft over Philpstoun, but in the trial so far planes have generally been flying at about 6,000ft – this is because pilots like to get as high as possible as quickly as possible to save fuel … this obviously makes the planes seem quieter, but in the future larger planes could use the route – they would climb slower and so could be lower and louder over Philpstoun. A few larger planes use the route at the moment like Ethiad travelling to the middle east If passenger numbers grow more larger planes could use the route as airlines put on bigger planes to cater for increased passenger numbers.

How can Edinburgh Airport just start this trial?This has been a big point of contention. The Airport just had to write to the Scottish Government to start the trial. The press releases from Edinburgh Airport mention all the community consultation that they’ve done, but a number of the communities affected by the route don’t think enough has been done … so much so that our MSPs have become heavily involved which has not doubt

Philpstoun Community Council Page �2

‘TUTUR’ Key facts

• about 32 planes per day have been using the new trial route

• Planes use the trial route about 70% of the time depending on wind direction

• Average height = c 6000 ft

• Minimum height = c3600 ft

• Estimated passenger growth is from 10m today to 13m by 2017

• The Estimated noise of a plane passing over Philpstoun is 70-80 db - same as standing 5m away from a busy road

Typical take off times of flights using TUTUR (example of Friday 9th October)

0603 - Amsterdam 0614 - Krakow 0632 - Rome 0643 - Venice 0655 - Corfu 0744 - Prague 0746 - Gothenburg 0836 - Amsterdam 0939- Abu Dhabi 1042 - Amsterdam 1113 - Amsterdam 1216 - Istanbul 1256 - Cologne 1316 - Frankfurt 1331 - Hamburg

1334 - Amsterdam 1347 - Budapest 1420 - Brussels 1500 - Copenhagen 1503 - Doha 1509 - Zurich 1521 - Copenhagen 1619 - Amsterdam 1636 - Istanbul 1752 - Amsterdam 1808 - Frankfurt 1810 - Amsterdam 1821 - Munich 1823- Bremen 1842 - Kaunas

Philpstoun News October 2015

contributed to a decision by Edinburgh Airport to shorten the length of the trial from Christmas to the end of October.

Will the route be made permanent?To make the route permanent the airport will need to undertake a full public consultation (details on the SID website) – we feel they will rely heavily on feedback made from communities during the trial – so it is really important that if you feel strongly about this issue then you use your chance to feedback now - silence may be interpreted as acceptance!

Can’t fewer planes use the route? We might not mind so much if it was just a few….We are unclear as to why 32 planes need to come over us to solve the ‘plane congestion’ issue at peak times at the airport. When challenged on this point the response has been that the route is also more fuel efficient for planes – To us this feels like a different justification more aligned to making money rather than supporting Scottish growth.

Can we influence the route? Maybe – we will certainly push for this, however this will happen during the consultation, for now it is just important to feedback your views on the trial.

If it is permanent what are the implications? At the community council we understand the need to support growth in Scotland, but planes flying over our rural community could certainly be considered to be an unnecessary intrusion.

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If it were just a few a day, we might all accept the need. Unless you are a plane spotter we’re struggling to see any positives.

What can I do?The airport have not proactively gone out to the communities to seek feedback. They are relying on ‘contacts’ from the public as a result of their media stories to gauge the acceptance of the trial with local communities, so we recommend that….

If you want to comment on the new flight path and the impact it has, or could have on you, or you want to register a complaint about noise disturbance you should write to:

edicommunica*ons@edinburghairport.com    

to make sure your voice is heard before the end of the trial (end of October 2015).

Include your address and try to be specific about what is concerning you, including the times of planes (the table on page 2 should help).

If you don’t have access to the internet you can write to Gayle Barclay, SID Flight Trial, Edinburgh Airport, Edinburgh EH12 9DN, or you can call the Edinburgh Airport Noise Line on 0800 731 3397.

There is lots of information on the SID website where you can also lodge comments:

www.sid.edinburghairport.com

Airport

Philpstoun

TUTUR SID flight path

Did you know you can track individual planes on the Airport’s live Flight Radar? Just go to www.edinburghairport/flights/flight-radar

The flight path trace above shows the route of all planes leaving the airport on 28th August .

Philpstoun News October 2015

Back to the Bing!!You may have noticed works have started in the South Bing since the spring … but what are the plans and where are Neil Williams Haulage?

It was a long saga for us, fighting the planning application and appeal to create an aggregate recycling plant on the South Bing. For those who can’t remember, Neil Williams Haulage were eventually granted planning permission to set up the facility in the bing crater to process inert waste material- creating recycled aggregate for sale and depositing residual material in the bing, slowly filling it and landscaping it over a period of around 15 years.

The planning approval included a large number of conditions relating to vehicle numbers, noise, use of the site and the provision of an expensive bond. The bond is held in case the operating company goes bust - West Lothian Council could cash in the bond and fix the site.

Last year Neil Williams Haulage decided that they couldn’t put up the money for the bond, and so

Hopetoun Estates (who owns the bing), asked Hunter Environmental (who operate Niddry Bing) to take on the terms of the planning application, pay the bond and operate the proposed plant at the South Bing.

So all the agreed terms of the planning have now transferred to Hunter. This is perfectly legal and West Lothian Council are fully aware of the position. The planning permission goes with the land, not the original company.

So what are they doing?The Community Council have met George Beattie and Alan Johnson from Hunter to understand their plans. They are keen to work with the community and explained what is going on:

• The replacement of the gates at the entrance is part of the planning conditions and was done to keep the planning application ‘live’

•Work to remove unsafe outcrops has been ongoing in the bing to make it safe to work in.

•As available, material is being bought to the bing to create two working platforms for the eventual aggregate recycling plant.

•Until the site is permanently established, processing of materials will continue as and when suitable materials are available, but when there is no material available there may be no one on site. It will always be monitored daily though.

• Levelling of some areas is taking place to try and discourage bikers.

If you’ve got any comments on the work, we are happy to feed them into the operators – email us. to come along to one of our community council meetings in November

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DID YOU KNOW: Oatridge College use the planning history at the South Bing as a case

study for their land planning course – the community council does an annual

presentation to the students

Hunter Environmental will be attending the 17th November

Community Council Meeting in the Hall 7.30pm to talk through their

plans - ALL WELCOME