Right now, people who live close to our Airports, but not necessarily under the final approach may be living in hope that the amount of aircraft noise they endure might be reduced. Or maybe they fear that it might increase. This is because technology changes are leading to changes in flight-paths – some of which have been unchanged for decades.

Airports already do this from time to time, and there is an established process of public engagement and consultation which applies.

Now, masterminded by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), a new process is being planned, updating the old Guidance and clarifying the responsibilities of various parties. Today, it finishes consulting the industry about the proposed changes – called CAP 1520 or Draft airspace design guidance. It is not a slim document; the last 15 of the 234-page tome is taken up with a Glossary containing 150 items!  Seriously!

But it may affect a lot of people and improvements in the way consultation works will matter to them. There are new requirements to look at route options early in the process and to engage with local people right at the beginning. The CAA wants to scrutinise all the Consultation papers to minimise mistakes and it also hopes to use a standard centralised CAA online portal to gather people’s views. Interestingly, it proposes Public Evidence Sessions whereby stakeholders are given an opportunity to be heard – something we strongly support in the Consultation Institute.

The devil is in the detail, however, and the Institute has sent the CAA a full response with our views on the consultation aspects of its new Guidance. The Public Evidence Sessions, for example, we wish to see take place earlier in the process, not at the end, and we are dubious about the suggestion that people could see how their individual responses have been categorised.

In recent weeks, the Institute has been working to provide an independent Quality Assurance on proposals to change airspace in Edinburgh. We have established a Stakeholder Reference Group, and helped the Airport observe best practice standards as it sought to engage almost with nearly half a million people.

These are complex projects with enormous potential to arouse fierce passions in local communities. That is why it is therefore so important that the industry framework is robust and itself the embodiment of best practice. With over 30 UK Airports expected to hold consultations in airspace changes in the next two years, concerned citizens, environmental bodies, local authorities and community groups all need to be clued-up about the new arrangements.

We wonder how many of them knew about the consultation on these Guidelines

And how many waded through the consultation paper, and responded to the CAA?

We attach our response for you to read: Response to CAA

Rhion Jones

Founder Director

The Consultation Institute