Luis Feliu
Community groups alarmed at the controversial expansion of Gold Coast Airport runway set to destroy a large swathe of Crown wetland in NSW and increase air-traffic noise over homes in the Tweed are holding a public meeting on Monday.
The Tugun Cobaki Alliance (TCA) is hosting the ‘Save Our Tweed – No Runway Extension’ protest meeting on 14 March at 6pm (NSW) at the South Tweed Community Centre, Heffron Street, South Tweed.
Alliance spokesperson Lindy Smith urged residents to ‘act now before it’s too late’.
A poster for the meeting says the airport expansion plans ‘will put larger, lower and noisier planes over your homes and affect your property prices’.
‘Airport expansion will also destroy critical ecosystems of the lower Tweed river system, state protected wetlands and critical Class 1 fishery habitat,’ the poster says.
‘It will impact on existing jobs in Tweed Shire! The Tweed community has successfully said NO to runway extension in the past. ‘
The contentious plan to expand the runway and build an instrument landing system (ILS) on the Crown land has sparked a public outcry on the NSW side of the border, with recent moves by the Greens to block it unsuccessful. (see previous story https://www.echo.net.au/2016/02/labor-helps-block-move-for-gold-coast-airport-probe/)
The move by the Greens in the senate last month was aimed at deferring the federal government’s approval the ILS but was blocked after Labor joined the coalition to defeat it.
It followed the earlier approval of the $10-million ILS which the Greens say paves the way for the extension of the runway into the environmentally sensitive Crown land in NSW.
The Greens have called for a public inquiry into how public land was being transferred to the privately-run Gold Coast Airport for the expansion.
Greens NSW Senator Lee Rhiannon said she shared the concerns of many locals about the potential for increased noise pollution that would result from a new flight path associated with the ILS.
See related Echonetdaily stories.
Gold Coast Airport pollution ‘could have spread 20km’
Tweed District Residents & Ratepayers Association president Lindy Smith has accused Gold Coast Airport and Airservices Australia of ‘deliberately obfuscating’ over pollution from toxic firefighting foam that has leached into surface and groundwater around the airport.
Bid to stop Gold Coast airport works shot down
A bid by Tweed mayor Katie Milne calling on the federal and state governments to stop clearing and earthworks for the controversial instrument landing system at Gold Coast Airport was shot down last night.
Gold Coast Airport encroachment
Lindy Smith, Tweed Heads. A further incident of a near miss at Gold Coast Airport (GCA) to add to others in recent times must not be ignored.
Greens want details of airport’s toxic chemicals released
The Greens have stepped up their calls for action to deal with contamination at the Gold Coast Airport after a report from the US Environmental Protection Agency has added further concerns about toxic firefighting chemicals used at the site.
Hiding the facts behind airport’s landing system
Lindy Smith, Tweed Heads. Following the approval of Gold Coast Airport’s (GCA) Instrument Landing System (ILS), which secures a development footprint on the NSW Crown Reserve for Public Recreation/Conservation and new 18km flight path over the Gold Coast urban area, we now have confirmation of what GCA is really up to.
So much mis information. List a heap of environmental issues (that are not true) and then at the very end list what you are really worried about ” affect your property prices”.
If you love the environment fair enough, argue and educate yourself and come to the correct decision, but stop using green issues to masquerade what you are really worried about.
Exactly! They are just removing some trees so the planes do t suck anything in
It will bring bigger, noiser planes? We have air Asia, it’s the noisiest you can get, and we also use to have the 777, one of the biggest passenger airliners in the world and also “lower planes”, it’s called an approach path and it’s going to happen anyway, and I don’t think I would call it a ‘runway extension’ they are just pushing the threshold back, and removing a few trees so the planes don’t suck anything in, these people …. just don’t want anything to progress, they have spent a lot of money onto this project and it’s already underway so deal with it, and I am done here