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Hope for relief

Staff ReporterComment News

AT last, some prospect of relief from the aircraft noise blight that has dogged Roleystone and other suburbs for nearly five years.

I encourage all interested residents to attend the Airservices Australia (ASA) information show at the Family Centre on Sunday afternoon, August 11. Some of the material distributed by ASA requires critical examination.

Like many others, I have been rebuffed by ASA countless times with complaints of aircraft noise, even measuring specific instances and suggesting that Roleystone is noisier than suburbs twice as close to the airport.

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In a trial conducted in 2011, the aircraft noise was measured and reported as ‘Short Term Noise Monitoring Program Roleystone WA’ – an indictment of ASA’s Western Australia Route Review Project changes in 2008 confirming the noise blight.

It is noisier at night in our dormitory, semi-rural suburb of Roleystone, 20 or so kilometres from the airport, than it is during the day.

Much of the information issued regarding the Roleystone trial on the ASA website is open to question. Remember this is only one of some seven flight paths that cross the district.

ASA has suggested that AS2021 (Aircraft Noise Intrusion ” Building Siting and Construction) is a standard for sleep disturbance; it is not, such assertions are not only wrong but present a danger to health.

AS2021 is simply a standard for land use planning and how much noise resistance such as double-glazing and the like that has to be built into a home within 15km of an international airport. It also assumes that all external doors and windows remain shut.

Even so, the levels in AS2021 are some three times higher than the World Health Organisation recommended threshold levels.

A health-based standard for recommended design sound levels and reverberation times for building interiors is an appropriate standard for assessing noise levels in bedrooms and accords better with the WHO guidelines.

Concerned residents are getting together for a ‘pre meeting’ on Tuesday, August 6, to compare their experiences and discuss why ASA seems incapable of ensuring aircraft keep to their designated flight paths and designated altitudes on this, and the other six flight paths that cross the Roleystone district.

PETER STEWART, Roleystone