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I can't quite follow the logic in the letter by Dudley Smith (Obvious solution, The West, 4 Mar 2011). Perhaps he is very, very young. Or has a very short memory.
He seems to be saying that we should -- many years ago -- have planned to place Perth airport where it would not interfere with people and houses and open spaces. Here's some news: we did.
Perth airport was way out of the city. It was surrounded by empty, open spaces.
Then land developers saw the opportunity to make a quick quid. They had land near the airport rezoned to residential. They built houses right underneath current and future flight paths. They sold the land to desperate people.
Now those desperate people live under busy flight paths. And Dudley Smith complains that the airport was poorly planned...
Where was the poor planning: with the airport which was placed in the middle of a spacious, empty buffer zone? Or with the developers, who sold housing estates right under known flight paths.
It's the same story with Jandakot airport. The busiest small plane airport in Australia -- and money-hungry developers sold land under the flight paths to desperate suckers.
It gets worse.
There's a fence around the crash zone of Perth airport. The fence defines an area where -- if there is a disaster -- a plane may crash-land without killing too many people. An area which is deliberately left with no people, no buildings, no risk of death from the air to those on the ground.
So what does the greedy government do?
It rents the land to greedy developers who put buildings -- and people -- right inside the safety zone of the airport. If a plane comes in -- out of control -- and misses the runway -- where will it land? In the safety zone of course -- right amongst all those people and cars and trucks and buildings.
If a pilot misses the runway, where will the plane land? Amongst the traffic and buildings and people, of course. Nowhere safe, that's for sure.
Still, not to worry.
The houses under the flight path are quiet. Peaceful. In a quiet location.
What?! Really! How can you believe that?!
Well, it must be true. Because that's what the real estate agents are saying (Agents' tough sell near flight path, The West, 4 Mar 2011).
And we all know that real estate agents always tell the truth.
Just like the government, which said that it will always be safe to build close by a busy airport.
Just like the developers, who said that we can place housing estates under busy flight paths because the noise will just go away.
Because "planning" means making money as fast as we can. Then demanding that someone else must be blamed for the messes that we have created. And someone else must pay to remove the evidence of our own greed and stupidity.
Plan a safe airport? Why bother.
Agamedes Consulting. Support for your thought: email nick leth at gmail dot com |
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