ALDAVILLA residents’ concerns over the planned expansion of the flying school at the nearby Kempsey Airport were heard at the Kempsey Shire Council meeting on Tuesday.
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There were 43 submissions by worried community members to the council and councillor Leo Hauville said the majority were about the number of planes to be flying over Aldavilla and the length of hours the airport will be active.
“The development application states there will be 23,000 planes to be taking off from Kempsey Airport in 2018. The flying times will be from 6am to midnight, seven days a week,” Cr Hauville said.
“The residents are worried about the noise and as an Aldavilla citizen myself I can hear the planes flying above my house.”
All of the submissions made to the council by the Aldavilla residents will be included in the development application that will be handed to the Northern Joint Regional Planning Panel.
The Northern Joint Regional Planning Panel will make the decision on the expansion of the flying school and they will be in Kempsey on March 15 to discuss the proposal. The public are welcome to attend that meeting and address the panel.
Kempsey Shire Council has resolved to undertake a community awareness campaign to improve understanding of the operations and approvals required for the expansion of the Australian International Aviation College (AIAC).
AIAC has lodged a development application for the construction of buildings and works related to the proposed expansion of the flight training college.
Mayor Liz Campbell said that many in the community and those who attended this week’s council meeting, were not aware that council is not the decision maker for the development application.
“As council is the owner of the site for a development valued at over $5 million the application is required to be decided on by the Northern Joint Regional Planning Panel,” Cr Campbell said.
“Council’s decision making is only relevant in the drafting and signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) which guides the terms of the land use and college operations.”
Kempsey Council has an MOU in place for the college with a revised MOU addressing the operations of the proposed expanded flying school currently being negotiated.
It is anticipated that the terms of any revised MOU will reference a Noise Management Plan to be prepared for all airport users. That plan would involve significant community consultation and deal specifically with the issue of aircraft noise and associated impacts on surrounding residents.
