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Problem shifts, not shared

Janice TeoCanning Gazette

AUSTRALIA'S airways management body, Airservices Australia (AsA), has advised Canning Vale residents by brochure letter-drop of an impending trial of flight path changes to the route used by departing aircraft from Perth Airport, to fly over Canning Vale and surrounds in lieu of Shelley and surrounds, between 10pm and 5am.

This will introduce aircraft noise over our residences previously not experienced overnight.

The advice came for many after one of two information drop-in meetings was held by AsA for residents and on the very day of the second such meeting for residents, far too late for most to arrange to attend.

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Consequently, AsA would have seemed to have considered it had received little opposition to the proposal.

Well, there is plenty of opposition, and now AsA has planned two more such meetings in August, both of the information "drop-in" type.

Such meetings with one-on-one interaction between AsA and resident do not bode well for effectively relaying the overall swell of opposition that may arise if such meetings were held in the traditional format of a presentation (by AsA) followed by plenty of time for questions and answers from the audience.

In the meantime, as if to get us residents used to more aircraft flights over Canning Vale and the surrounding suburbs, recently identified as Australia's fastest growing residential area in 2014, day after day of arriving flights throughout the day over Canning Vale have been introduced.

These have been at intervals of two to four minutes in most cases of aircraft landing at the airport from the south.

In addition, on many of these days the wind direction was such that flying best practice for landing would normally require landing from the north (into Perth's typical prevailing south-west winds).

This has been the practice at Perth Airport for decades, flying over much less crowded residential areas in the north-east of the airport.

We are familiar with arrivals to the airport landing over us, but only on the occasions of north to east winds to land into, and rarely all day.

To experience what we have the past two months in the daytime, as well as the AsA expectation for us also to endure the departing aircraft noise overnight, is very unfair and is shifting the Shelley problem rather than sharing.

The sharing should be to some other area than us who already have our share normally, with the added experience of the past two months.

I urge residents to rise up more and oppose the unfair plan of Airservices Australia.

RUSSELL COGHLAN,

Canning Vale.