the Secretary of State’s policy does place an onus on us to consider the information the airport or air traffic control organisation gather on the environmental impact of a trial to establish whether a consultation/engagement is required. This will be based on information provided by the airport or air traffic control and take into account the level of environmental impact, the length of the trial and the environmental objectives given to us by the Secretary of State.
Yes - unfortunately to date, the impacts have generally been assessed by the trial sponsors purely by the rough averaged noise contours and these are not sufficient to pick up the degree of annoyance felt by many communities suffering changed procedures. The latest airspace change policy consultation will hopefully move the goalposts to be more realistic and include wider noise metrics in the assessment.