Edinburgh Airport flight path consultation responses lost during website upgrade
Edinburgh Airport has apologised after almost 200 responses to a public consultation were lost.
The airport launched the consultation on altering flight paths above the capital in June this year.
However, 199 responses submitted online between Monday August 29 and Friday September 2 were not saved during an upgrade of the consultation website, bosses have admitted.
They have now extended the consultation's closing date by one week, to the end of Monday September 19, and are urging those who submitted responses during the relevant times last week to do so again.
Director of communications Gordon Robertson said: ''Edinburgh Airport has been conducting its Let's Go Further consultation since June this year and has already had an excellent response with thousands of submissions. We have identified that responses submitted via the consultation website between 10.31am on Monday August 29 and 12.05pm on Friday September 2 did not save during a planned upgrade of the site. Although this is a relatively small number of responses in the context of the overall number of submissions, we are committed to ensuring that all who want to comment on our plans can. We apologise wholeheartedly for this and believe that this extension offers sufficient time for people to resubmit their input.''
Officials have been able to track down the email addresses of 21 people whose feedback was lost and they will be contacted directly.
The airport said it has already received thousands of responses to the consultation.
Views are being sought on the potential impact of changing routes over Edinburgh and the surrounding areas.
The airport, the busiest in Scotland, has said modernising its airspace, designed in the 1970s, was necessary in order to handle ''strong levels of growth'' in operations since 2013.
Last October a trial of a new flight path over West Lothian ended early after noise complaints from residents in communities including Uphall and Dechmont.