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You Are Being Asked To Subsidise
A Private Airport Business
Below is an "overlay" or map
which the Council produced some years ago to show the area of our city
which is most affected by airport noise. This map
was produced by the Moorabbin Airport Corporation (MAC) and
then adopted by the Council. In the simplest terms the map
is an estimate of the amount of noise that the airport is
going to make.
Without counsultation this Council overlay was imposed on many
families and caused an immediate reduction in the value of
thousands of properties. It also created special planning
considerations relating to how people inside the heavy black line could
use their homes and properties.
MAC
has just released its 2009 Draft Master Plan and it has a
revised
and expanded noise map because the airport wants to considerably
increase flight activity.
In
the new plan the
black line will spread out and contain more City of Kingston homes.
More residents will loose basic planning freedoms
and some of their home value.
Strangely this matter is not considered important enough for the
Council to invite open consultation and debate.
In fairness there should be extensive consultation and it
should involve the whole city, not just residents captured by
the line, because the effects of the line extend well beyond
its perimeter.
Every
rate payer in the City of Kingston has reason to phone and ask the
Council exactly when there will be proper consultation on this matter.
It also needs to be asked how the Council plans to represent
the interests of residents in it's response to the 2009 Airport
Master Plan if it has not undertaken a thorough consultative
exercise. The Council needs to know that we all take this
matter very seriously.
If you
have ideas about
subdividing your block or extending your home or even selling your home
at some point in the future then this issue is critically
important
to you.
The picture below shows the the
existing noise overlay superimposed on aircraft activity for one
day. It can be seen that there are many more people affected
by aircraft than just those within the above noise overlay.
Even MAC has admitted that the above noise map is a "blunt instrument". Residents
of the City of Kingston have every right to ask how such
a blunt instrument can be freely used by a private
business to plan its own expansion given the obvious and profound
implications for individual home owners.
And in a final shocking revelation it appears the overlay
is very theoretical and makes many obscure and untested
assumptions.
Looking at the actual flights for a day versus the
theoretical noise overlay in the picture below it can be seen that
there is only marginal correlation. We need real
noise
measuring devices in the City of Kingston and then real limitations on
environmental degradation and associated sanctions, not theoretical
models which take away our basic property rights.
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