HE RAF denied this week that one of their Chinook helicopters and a Royal Navy aircraft were involved in a "near miss" over Farnham town centre.

David Seal, of Burnt Hill Way, claimed this week that he had seen a Chinook helicopter involved in a near miss with a Navy Sea King helicopter above East Street.

Mr Seal, who is leading a campaign calling for the number of flights by Chinook helicopters over the town to be cut, claimed the incident had taken place at 3-50 pm on Thursday last week.

"It looked like a very close call," said Mr Seal. " The helicopters appeared to have to take 'avoiding action'. They seemed to have been flying towards each other. "

Responding to Mr Seal's concerns, a spokesman for RAF Odiham confirmed that Chinook helicopters from its base had been flying with Royal Navy Sea Kings during that afternoon. But the spokesman denied that there had been any problems.

"We have been involved in an operation with the Navy where we fly our helicopters in close formation. We would have been alerted if there had been a problem. Fortunately, this was not the case," the RAF spokesman said.

Chinooks, based at RAF Odiham, make an average of 300 flights over Farnham per month, which works out as around 15 flights per day.

The helicopters fly mostly during week days, with a small number of flights in the evenings.

The RAF spokesman said: "Unfortunately, we have to fly over Farnham because it is the only approach route to our runway. We have received guidance from other authorities and there is no other way round the problem. The pilots need to practise their runway approaches so that they are prepared for landing in poor weather conditions."

Mr Seal has also raised concerns about the noise caused by the helicopters and claimed that they fly too low over the built-up area. He is hoping to organise a petition for local residents to lobby the RAF to cut the number of flights.

"I understand there is a need for the pilots to practise, but I would like to see a reduction in the number of flights over the town. Chinook's are very noisy aircraft because of their twin rotors. At times it feels like they are flying at dangerously low levels," Mr Seal said.

The RAF spokesman countered: "The height advised for the approaches and for flying over built-up areas is 1,500 feet. This is the standard our pilots maintain."

Under military guidelines, low-level flying is classed as below 500 feet, the RAF spokesman stated that this was never permitted unless in a case of emergency.

Pilots and support crew from the RAF Odiham have been serving in Iraq and the acting station commander, wing commander Gavin Davey, backed the base spokesman's comments.

Wing commander Davey is himself recently returned from active service in Iraq where a crew of 100 pilots and support staff are based with five Chinooks at Basra Airport.

"We need to be able to prepare our crews for active service and this means they must practise exercises in the air," wing commander Davey said.

He added that the helicopters have a "good safety record" and will not fly at "dangerously low levels" over the town.