Elsie Lange
At a meeting at the end of last month, Hume councillors voted to lodge a submission to Melbourne Airport, in response to its Preliminary Draft Melbourne Airport Master Plan 2022 and the Preliminary Draft Third Runway Major Development Plan (MDP).
At the meeting on Tuesday, April 27, council said it would write its support for the north-south runway, despite increased aircraft noise for residents in the north of the municipality, but would call for “meaningful and ongoing” engagement and consultation with communities impacted by the runway.
It also requests changes to the 2022 Master Plan and MDP regarding environmental and potential traffic impacts.
Frank Rivoli spoke on behalf of the Hume Residents Airport Action Group at the meeting and said the group were “disappointed” to see the content of the council’s submission, because it read “similar to those of Melbourne Airport’s publicity department”.
Councillor Jack Medcraft reiterated the work council put into preparing the submission and receiving community feedback, and said residents would either get used to the aircraft noise, or move.
“At the end of the day, you buy a house in an area and you do your due diligence on that purchase, and if that says you’re going to live in a flight path, you’re going to live in a flight path,” Cr Medcraft said.
Councillor Naim Kurt said the new north-south direction of the runway was probably the best outcome they could have received as a community.
“The new north-south direction will unfortunately result in Bulla and surrounding areas to the north and south of the runway experiencing new noise disturbances, but this will affect significantly less people than what would have been under the previous east-west alignment,” Cr Kurt said.
Submissions to the draft Melbourne Airport Master Plan 2022 and the Preliminary Draft Third Runway Major Development Plan are open until May 16.
