COUNCILLORS faced with the tough decision of deciding where student pilots should fly in North Yorkshire have visited RAF Linton-on-Ouse.

Members of Hambleton District Council's cabinet were given a tour of the airbase by station chiefs so they could find out more about its activities before deciding what to do about controversial flying circuits.

The council, along with its colleagues in Harrogate, were there on a fact-finding mission weeks before having to make a key judgement on a 12-month trial of routes.

Last April, Hambleton councillors decided to trial a set of new circuits. Since 1995, planes had been directed to the north, north-west and south of the base.

As a result of the new trial, nearly half the flights were moved to the east and south. That has angered residents in Linton and Newton-on-Ouse, who claim the circuits should not have been changed.

Residents and protest groups from the areas over which the old circuits flew are resisting any moves to change them back.

The delegation was taken around the control tower, radar rooms and the two runaways by top brass at the base.

RAF spokesman Group Captain Andy Sudlow, the Linton station commander, said: "We at the RAF recognise that this is an important trial. Naturally, we are as keen as anyone that its outcome is the correct one. I feel that our part in this debate is to give councillors every opportunity to make the decision based on the facts.

"To that end, we have already conducted on site visits for the scrutiny committee and we gave a three-hour fact-finding tour to members of both cabinets.

"I am pleased to say that the cabinet members had a lot of questions to put to me and I hope the information they have gone away with will make their decision process easier.

"All members seemed content that they had been able to address first-hand those concerns that have been made to them."

John Fletcher, cabinet member for safety at Hambleton District Council, said: "The visit has proved very useful. It was a fact-finding mission and we now have all the information before us that we need before the cabinet makes a final decision.

"We have been reassured about some safety aspects at the base and are convinced that safety at the RAF is always paramount."

Updated: 10:46 Friday, January 21, 2005