ANGRY West Fifers told Edinburgh Airport chiefs to think again after their latest flight path proposals were slammed at a public meeting in Inverkeithing on Friday.

Concerned families in Dalgety Bay, North Queensferry and Inverkeithing had the chance to hear about the plans and air their views at the event which was held as part of the official consultation process.

Lesley Laird MP, who chaired the meeting, said the “sheer anger” expressed left airport representatives in no doubt about the feelings of affected communities.

“We heard from one woman who had no problems living near Heathrow, yet found on a visit to Aberdour that her health was severely impacted by noise. Anecdotes like this sum up just how serious an issue this is,” she said.

“I’d ask planners to go back to the drawing board and explore a reasonable alternative route which avoids causing misery to thousands of people day-in, day-out.”

Dunfermline and West Fife MP Douglas Chapman now plans to ask the Civil Aviation Authority to come and speak to constituents.

“Like many who attended, I have a difficulty with Edinburgh Airport measuring potential noise only after the changes have been approved,” he said. “Would it be too much to ask that actual trial flights be conducted in different weather conditions to see what the noise impact might be?

“We are asking Edinburgh Airport to look at other solutions and one popular theme on the night was to see if aircraft could fly further out into the Firth of Forth before making a turn at a much higher altitude, so cutting down on noise and disturbance for residents.

“In the meantime, I would encourage all residents who feel they may be adversely affected by the changed flight paths to submit a response to the consultation process and have their views recorded.”

A spokesperson for Dalgety Bay and Hillend Community Council said: “The airport confirmed at the meeting there would be an increased number of flights in future on route E compared to the existing route. This, together with the addition of the new flight path from the west, would greatly increase noise pollution in the area.

“We consider route E7a does not take into account the full health, educational or environmental impacts on the residents of Dalgety Bay and surrounding areas and we encourage the airport to again look at alternatives.

“The consultation material is not easy to understand and does not fully cover concerns of residents.”

Edinburgh Airport’s director of communications, Gordon Robertson, said there had been “a frank exchange of views” at the meeting.

“It was very loud and clear that there were some people who are unhappy with our proposals and unhappy with the noise currently,” he said. “We are going to do a bit of work over the summer to the end of the year in measuring noise – we have a number of temporary noise monitors but we are working with communities to best assess where they will go.

“The evening was designed for us to clarify or answer questions and identify areas where we need to do a bit more work and we need to listen and that is really what we did. “ The consultation runs until June 28 and can viewed at www.letsgofurther.com.