LOGAN might seem a long way from the Brisbane airport, but it hasn’t stopped noise complaints escalating.
According to evidence provided by Airservices Australia to a Senate committee, the Noise Complaints and Information Services (NCIS) team, responsible for managing complaints and enquiries about aircraft noise and operations, has handled a significant growth in the level of noise complaints.
Brisbane Airport’s new parallel runway has triggered an increase in noise complaints from residents, leading to the independent Aircraft Noise Ombudsman launching an inquiry in December.
The Aircraft Noise Ombudsman (ANO) conducted a multiple complaints review of Airservices’ environmental assessment of the impact of the flight paths developed for the new runway and its community engagement with potentially affected residents.
The review found Airservices failed to engage effectively with the communities potentially affected by the new flight paths in contravention of its then applicable policy and contrary to best practice for community engagement and that Airservices did not provide full and complete information regarding aircraft noise to potentially affected communities.
According to the report, any summary of the adverse impacts reported by complainants would be inadequate.
“The issues reported include negative impacts on health, mental stress and anxiety; disruption and aggravation for complainants working from home; loss of residential amenity, including interruption to indoor activities and loss of use of outdoor areas; interruption to sleep, adverse impacts observed in children and diminished property values,” the report said.
“To varying degrees, the complainants exhibit shock, anger and frustration. Some complainants were completely unaware of the potential impact of the new flight paths. These included both long term residents, and those who had moved into affected suburbs after the public consultation process in 2007.”
The report said the consistent theme of complaints was that the complainants were reassured that the impact on them would not be significant.
It said people were falsely reassured that the dual runway would provide for the bulk of take-offs and landings over Moreton Bay and minimising the disturbance to them.
The Aircraft Ombudsman Kieran, Pehm found Airservices Australia did not complete its analysis before the runway opened.
Brisbane Flight Path Community Alliance spokesman David Diamond said the report raised serious legal implications for Airservices Australia.
“We think the big issue is the ‘superhighway’ where there is this corridor which they have designed where residents cop the noise in and out,” he said.
Mr Diamond said the report vindicated residents, who had been told their complaints were inaccurate or misleading.
“It’s an absolutely damning report and I think it shows an absolute lack of governance in the process,” he said.
Mr Pehm’s report found flight paths continued to be developed and amended up to late 2019.”
The board of Airservices Australia said it accepted the four recommendations from the Ombudsman’s study
It announced its own review of Brisbane’s new flight paths and said it would take part in the community consultation plan announced by Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce recently.
