Dundee airport: noise action plan

4. Governance of Noise Action Planning

4.1 Competent Authority

Airport operators are the competent authority responsible for producing airport action Plans. The airport operator for Dundee Airport is Highlands and Islands Airports Limited ( HIAL) which is owned by Scottish Ministers. The Scottish Government has therefore produced this draft Action Plan on behalf of HIAL.

4.2 Scottish Environmental Noise Steering Group ( SENSG)

Delivery of the END Directive objectives in Scotland has been achieved through extensive partnership working. Scottish Government has assumed responsibility for co-ordination of the noise mapping and action planning exercises but this has been heavily supported by individual working groups dealing with each of the agglomerations, airports and other transport systems. These working groups have benefited from a multi disciplinary membership including Local Authorities, other agencies and key partners.

The Scottish Environmental Noise Steering Group ( SENSG) comprises representation from organisations with varying responsibility for environmental noise, namely the Scottish Government, AECOM, Local Authorities, SEPA, Transport Scotland and airport operators. SENSG provides a forum for discussion on Noise Action Planning progression, with the governance arrangement shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: END Governance Arrangements in Scotland

4.3 Identification of Candidate Quiet Areas

There are no requirements to identify Quiet Areas within the Airport Action Plan as these are covered in the Action Plan for the Dundee Agglomeration.

4.4 Action Planning

The Directive requires that Action Plans are produced for each of the qualifying agglomerations, major airports and major transport systems. The content of the Action Plans are however for member states to determine but based on some minimum requirements as set out in Annex 5 of the Directive.