Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what recent assessment he has made of levels of noise pollution from Texan training planes flying over Arfon; and what recent steps he has taken to reduce noise disruption.

The Texan aircraft complies fully with relevant international aviation noise standards.

Arfon lies fully under the North Wales Military Training Area which provides valuable and regularly used training airspace for RAF Valley and other military aerodromes. This training area offers specific advantages in terms of scale, terrain and deconfliction from other airspace users that meet many essential training requirements for the RAF and the Texan fleet.

However, the Station plans the use of this airspace carefully, and works closely with the Texan Squadron to distribute training as equitably and fairly as possible. A significant proportion of Texan flying is undertaken in other areas, where these provide suitable conditions to meet essential training objectives, including overwater areas in order to minimise disturbance to local communities and ease the congestion within the North Wales Military Training Area.