A PROPOSED six-month trial for Rio Tinto aircraft using Busselton Regional Airport prior to 7am does not look as though it will take off.
And flight training that has been going on since the airport was given a licence 12 years ago is claimed to be illegal.
Busselton council decided at its last meeting to allow Rio Tinto to have the trial to enable planes to operate from 5am – two hours earlier than the 7am curfew that has been in place.
However, the motion has already run into turbulence.
Cr Tom Tuffin, who is also chairman of the Busselton Regional Airport Advisory Group (BRAAG), said he did not believe the motion was workable.
“I am wearing my councillor cap here, not that as chair of the BRAAG,” he said.
“Of course the decision will be made by the Department of Environment and Conservation, but in my opinion it is an unworkable motion in its present form and will remove the possibility of any trial occurring. It calls on DEC to not prosecute aircraft making the early morning flights, but its difficult to imagine DEC agreeing to this action.
“The current licence conditions stipulate flights can only be made between 7am and 10pm. Other companies have also indicated a desire to have early-morning flights. How can DEC not prosecute one company for operating between 5am and 7am and then prosecute another rival company for doing exactly the same thing?
It would be laying itself wide open to accusations of commercial favouritism and of condoning illegal activities and acting entirely outside licence conditions if it allowed all the companies to make early morning flights.
“I even question whether the shire has the right to ask DEC not to prosecute a particular company if they fly between 5am and 7am, even if it is only for six months.
“In essence, the shire would be asking a government department to ignore its responsibilities and duties and to turn a blind eye to activities that would be clearly illegal if they were carried out.
“As a result I moved an amendment to have all the words after 5am to 7am removed from the first paragraph of the motion. (This was the section that referred to not prosecuting).
“It may have, I believe, cleared the way for a more acceptable form of trial. My amendment was defeated and the full motion was passed.
“I respect the council’s right to make this decision, but I will be extremely surprised if the trial is given approval to proceed under these circumstances.”
Busselton Airport Residents’ Group spokesperson Greg Chapman also believed the trial wouldn’t get off the ground.
“This is Busselton and the ambient noise at 5-6 o’clock in the morning is very very low compared to the metropolitan area. It’s very very different.
“It’s horrific at seven o’clock, but most of us put up with it because it is good for the mine workers, but our amenity needs to be respected and we demand that it is respected.
“There’s been fear amongst the community for two years now about this trial happening.
“It’s time people were allowed to live without that fear. It’s time they were allowed to relax and just get on with their lives and not have this hanging over their heads.
“The shire is there to represent the people. It’s not there to accommodate a corporate business, which apart from the $65,000 (contribution for noise management) doesn’t contribute to the shire at all. We do. We clearly do, and we’ve been neglected here.”
Mr Chapman said that pilot training had been a bugbear for airport residents for the last 12 years.
“It started in 1997 when the RAAF was invited by the then CEO to bring their Macchi jets down here. We have maintained that pilot training has been and is a breach of conditions of approval for the operation of the airport since that time.”
The shire’s manager economic development Paul Martin said the trial would not go ahead unless approval was received from the Minister for the Environment, and the shire had yet to write to her to seek approval for the trial.
“Until the councillors and the Airport Advisory Group have been briefed the shire is not in a position to provide any further information on this matter,” he said.
A confidential shire briefing has been scheduled for tomorrow afternoon.
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