Petition on flight paths

Peninsula residents demand a say on any future changes:

FORESTIER Peninsula residents have voiced more concerns about not being directly consulted on Airservices Australia’s review into flight path changes in the area.

Airservices Australia made path changes into Hobart in September, resulting in up to 50 planes a day flying over Boomer Bay, Dunalley and other towns, concerning residents.

Airservices Australia said last week the changes were made to organise aircraft movements on to standard routes, but backtracked and announced it would review whether there were alternatives.

A petition with 250 signatures against the changes will be presented to federal Trans- port Minister Darren Chester this week. It is calling on Airservices Australia to revert to previous flight paths and then do public consultation for a balanced route.

Tasmanian Infrastructure Minister Rene Hidding has also written to Mr Chester, requesting that Airservices Australia consult residents about the changes.

Boomer Bay resident David Patman said locals were annoyed at the lack of initial public consultation but were now frustrated that the review, which was expected to take weeks, won’t give them the chance to speak. “Obviously they realised they made a mistake with no consultation — but they’re doing the same thing as last time,” he said.

“We want them to do what they should have done in the first place [and consult] with all residents. We used to get one plane every three weeks, now it’s over 30 a day.”

An Airservices Australia spokeswoman said the public could submit any noise complaints to its website, with the review to consider alternative paths that reduced impacts on residents.

Airservices Australia has said the Hobart, Sorell and Clarence councils were told of the changes at two Community Aviation Consultation Group meetings this year.

Airservices Australia has also released its environmental assessment document which explains how it calculated the potential noise impact.

Mr Patman said residents had concerns with the modelling and would seek advice from an aviation expert.