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Edinburgh Airport draft Noise Action Plan 2024 - 2028

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Draft NAP consultation

Edinburgh Airport and those responsible for other noise sources such as ROAD Rail and industrial noise are required by the Scottish Government to produce 5 year Noise Action Plans (NAP), a public consultation on a draft version of the NAP must be carried out prior to the document's submission to Scottish Government Ministers for adoption. A document summarising the consultation responses and any changes to the draft NAP document will be produced and uploaded to the Noise Lab after completion of the NAP process.
Consultation period 11 November 2024 to 31^st January 2025
Consultation website https://corporate.edinburghairport.com/community/noise-action-plan
The consultation ran for 12 weeks, and once analysis and production of the final NAP 2024-2028 is complete it will be published on Edinburgh Airports Noise Lab. https://noiselab.casper.aero/edi/content/2/noise-action-plan/
The Noise Action Plan will operate from 2025 -2028
The draft NAP is produced based on the requirements of the Scottish governments document ‘Airport Noise Action Planning Guidance 2024’ and provides the data and information they require, and we MUST provide. The data, format and mapping MUST be provided in the format requested.

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The consultation will be extended for EACC member to midnight Friday 14^th February as agreed previously.

Why is the document so long – the draft NAP is produced based on the requirements of the Scottish governments document ‘Airport Noise Action Planning Guidance 2024’ and provides the data and information they require and we MUST provide. The data, format and mapping are MUST be provided in the format requested.

This does make it a large document however as with all regulations we must provide the information as instructed. Either myself or EANAB members can provide a copy of this guidance on request.

This Action Plan is an Update of the previous NAP rather than an entirely new Action plan as requested by the Scottish government therefore theformat of the plan follows the format of previous NAP rounds

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What is a Noise Action Plan?

Noise Action Plans or NAPs are a requirement of the Environmental Noise (Scotland) Regulations 2006 (as amended)

Noise Action Plans are produced and operate on 5 yearly cycles, each cycle is called a ‘Round’ we are currently consulting on ‘Round 4’ (R4)

Noise Action Plans present noise strategic contour mapping detailing levels of noise in close proximity to the source. This mapping MUST align with the format of NAPs produced in Scotland for Road, Rail and Industrial Noise sources as required by the current regulations.

NAP’s set out the airports approach to where possible and practicable noise will be managed reduced or mitigated over the term of the NAP.

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Consultation communications

To ensure the draft NAP consultation was communicated to elected member, community councils and communities

The NAP consultation was highlighted in the press, TV and social media with articles appearing in press across the area, some examples – The Edinburgh Reporter, STV Nightly news, STV web pages, The Dunfermline press, The Edinburgh Minute, and Scottish Tourism Alliance .

Posts went out on social media platforms 11/11/2024, 10/01/2025 & 27/01/2025

NAP consultation leaflets were hand delivered by royal mail to all properties within the eligible noise insulation contours

Emails detailing the consultation were sent to MP’s, MSP’s, Councillors, Community Councils, Local Environmental Health Departments, EACC & EANAB

The consultation with links was highlighted on the EANAB and Noise Lab webpages

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Five principle elements of our Balanced Approach to aircraft noise management

Reduction of noise at source –
Land-use, planning and management - Engaging and cultivating partnership with Local Authorities, Insulation Scheme
Noise abatement procedures
Operating restrictions
Working with our Communities – we have added this pillar to those set out by ICAO to ensure Communities are at the forefront of our management and mitigation schemes where feasible

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We have based our NAP on The ICAO Balanced approach to aircraft noise management which sets out 4 main principles , we have extended upon this to include a 5^th pillar which we have called WORKING WITH OUR COMMUNITIES’

Examples of what falls under those pillars are

1 - Edinburgh Airport Noise rating charges, Carbon Emissions Charges

Environmental Rebates, Zero Emissions Prize, Participation in Industry Groups

2 - Noise insulation scheme, Work with Local Authority Environmental

and Planning Depts on Land-use planning

3 - Airspace Modernisation, Noise monitoring and fining , Noise and Track Keeping system, Continuous Climb Departures (CCD), Continuous Descent Arrivals – (CDA)

Restrictions on Engine testing – Ground Runs

4 - Night noise mitigation – stricter noise limits/higher night time fines, Noise Preferential Routes (NPR)

5 - 5 Fixed Noise monitoring Stations, NTK Noise Lab accessible data and information

Edinburgh Airport Noise Advisory Board (EANAB), Edinburgh Airport Consultative Committee (EACC) , Noise insulation scheme, Noise Monitoring and Reporting

Noise Enquiry handling and Policy – and response targets

ALL of the above are detailed extensively in section 3 of the NAP

Our new Action tables are based on and headed in accordance with the 5 pillars including ‘Working with our communities’

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Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Balanced approach to Aircraft Noise Management-�

ICAO Methodology highlights the importance of considering all other measures prior to restriction of flights – we consider our current and new commitments as important measures in

Mitigation

substantial measures to improve Insulation scheme, night noise contours, extension of eligible areas, hardship consideration, postcode eligibility checker & dedicated annual budget

Management of Aircraft noise

CDA, Environmental Incentives Scheme, and changes to fleet mix

Monitor

EANAB, Noise Lab, Noise and Track system, extension of the noise monitor network

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Effects of Carbon and Noise schemes - new generation aircraft

TBA

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NAP Strategic Mapping

Supplemental mapping and data

To ensure a comparison of previous rounds is considered in the NAP we commissioned and analysed 2023 LAeq summertime contours against 2018 contours and data.

These indicate that within the 57dB + contours

The Area (km2) within the 57 + dBA contours decreased in size compared with 2018 from 20.7 km2 to 15.8 km2.
Population decreased from 4700 to 3900
The number of households decrease from 2000 to 1600
Similar decreases are noted across all contours 54 – 72. No data is available for the 51 – 53 contour range, in 2018 this was not commissioned at that time

At the request of EANAB further supplemental mapping is available within Appendix B, detailing NX, and 100% mode contours. This is out with the requirements of the NAP

As per NAP regulations, we are required to produce the mapping in the specified format. The guidelines state that 2021 operations must be used to generate the 2024 – 2028 NAP Strategic Mapping and data sets, but we also requested that the 2019 operations be mapped for a more accurate representation of current operations. This overestimates the noise climate against 2023 operations. As despite passenger number increasing from 4,494,810 to 4,522,083 operation numbers decreased from 2019, 37100 to 33268 during the 92-day summertime period.

Result tables for 2019 and 2021 detailing population and number of dwellings for each metric are available within the NAP documentation

Due to changes in Scottish Government mapping software and the adoption of the CNOSSOS-EU mapping methodology, previous NAP strategic mapping rounds cannot be directly compared with this one. As a result, comparing population areas and other statistics was not feasible.

We requested that the 2018–2023 data be remapped but were informed that this was not possible.

The strategic mapping on the Scottish Governments mapping website provides the 2021 only

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Proposed new insulation scheme

Action 1.15, 3.3,
Extend eligibility out to the Daytime 60 – 62 dBA

contours and Nighttime 57+ dBA contours (SOAEL) – Current scheme is and solely based on daytime 63dB + contours

Bringing properties within areas of Cramond into the scheme for the first time

Bi – Annual production of summer day and night contours
Dedicated budget of £250,000 per year
No cap on Edinburgh Airport contribution (within reason)
Maintain full contribution towards loft Insulation
The insulation scheme will be benchmarked against airports of a similar size biannually.
Next iteration of Contour mapping will be commissioned on Summer 2025 operations

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Health & Quality of life

Introduction of new noise insulation scheme which includes Nighttime contour mapping and eligiblility to ensure any increases in nighttime operations are captured in our mitigation measures

ANNE Survey - The Aviation Noise Attitudes Survey 2023-24, often referred to as ANAS, is a large-scale social research study examining the relationship between long-term exposure to aviation noise and annoyance in the UK. Edinburgh Airport is one of the airports which is included in the survey https://www.caa.co.uk/passengers-and-public/environment/noise/aviation-noise-attitudes-survey/

We have committed to review and where feasible implement further noise mitigation measures on needs identified in the ANNE Survey Action 1.18

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Questions ?