RESIDENTS have complained noisily about a proposal to extend operating hours of the parachute school at the Goulburn Airport and the new council has heard them, loud and clear.
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The motion to extend the operating hours of the parachute school at Goulburn Airport was knocked back on a casting vote from Mayor Bob Kirk at the Goulburn Mulwaree Council meeting on Tuesday night.
Residents under the flight path – including Robert Laurence (pictured) who spoke in the public forum – said the noise of skydiving planes was driving them mad and they were loud in their opposition to extending the hours.
“I live under the flight path and the noise is monotonous with a constant pitch,” Mr Laurence said.
Mr Laurence said the reports to the council, including a Noise Impact Statement, were “seriously flawed”.
“The consultant has made no distinction between the sound of skydiving planes and general aviation. Skydiving planes climb in a circle for 5km to 6km around the airport,” Mr Laurence said.
Councillors were tied in their votes – with four against the motion and four in favour. Mayor Bob Kirk had to use his casting vote to knock back the recommendation to extend hours.
There is no doubt it will come back to the council, but in any enterprise such as this, complaints about it affecting people’s amenity need to be balanced with the positive benefits such an operation may bring to the city.
In this case the parachute school operated by Adrenalin Skydive does bring a lot of people to Goulburn. Many of these students come from the defence forces, such as ADFA. They spend their money in town while they are here and they employ people at the airport.
The extension of hours they were seeking on Tuesday is a modification to a DA that had been approved by the council back in June 2012.
But Mr Laurence pointed out that granting the school up to two additional hours would equate to three extra flights a day – or a 25 per cent increase in skydive noise that was unrelated to general aviation noise.
So – at what point does financial benefit outweigh a citizen’s right to enjoy the amenity of where they live in peace without excessive noise? It is a universal question that comes before councils all the time. This time – the residents were heard.
