SYD MH: Found: a new airport option

SYD MH: Found: a new airport option

By Anne Davies, Urban Affairs Editor

May 28, 2004 [ Good access to transport and utilities but surrounded
only by villages . . . the rural landscape near Sutton Forest, south
of Sydney, close to the site of the latest option for the second
airport. Photo: Dallas Kilponen ]

A triangle of rural land near the village of Sutton Forest in the
Southern Highlands has been identified by the State Government as a
highly suitable site for Sydney's second airport, internal state
documents reveal.

Despite claims by the Premier, Bob Carr, that the Government has not
been involved in recommending sites to the federal Opposition, a
document obtained by the state Opposition under freedom of information
laws reveals that the site, Wells Creek, has been studied in detail.

The eight-page document, compiled for the Minister for Planning, Craig
Knowles, says the site bordered by the Hume Highway, Illawarra Highway
and Golden Valley Road is "potentially suitable" for a major airport.

It says the site is relatively flat, has "excellent" access to road
and rail, could be connected to Sydney by high-speed rail, is well
served by utilities, has relatively few environmental issues and is
surrounded only by villages.

On aircraft noise, the document says: "There will be comparatively low
impact on current land use - depending on runway configuration - as
local population levels are low and major NSW population centres are
relatively distant from the site . . .

"Major population centres in south-west Sydney, Goulburn, Wollongong
and Nowra are around 60-70 kilometres from the site. Aircraft will
have reached high altitude by this distance."

The report also notes that the site is outside the 100-kilometre
exclusivity zone granted to Macquarie Bank's Sydney Airport
Corporation Ltd, which operates Kingsford Smith.

This means that the second airport, which Labor has said would take
the budget airlines overflow, could go ahead without the corporation
being given first right to develop the site.

The analysis was produced in January, just before the ALP national
conference, by a member of Mr Knowles's staff at his request. It was
sent to the federal office, his spokeswoman said.

Mr Knowles wanted to know what sites were available, she said. "It
does not endorse the site. It's just geotechnical information on a
chunk of land on the east coast."

However, no other sites were analysed, says the response to the FoI
request. The document also highlights the merits of the site over
Wilton, closer to Sydney.

The federal Opposition spokesman on transport, Martin Ferguson, could
not recall seeing the document, but admitted speaking to Mr Knowles
about alternative sites for a second airport.

"There is no preferred site," he said. "Our position is to examine
alternative sites from the Nepean through the Southern Highlands."

Martin Laverty, whose Exeter house would be within a kilometre of a
Wells Creek airport and who convened an action group when Sutton
Forest was mentioned at the ALP conference, said: "Residents of the
highlands have been sceptical about our area becoming Sydney's second
airport, dismissing it as a political stunt. But we now have proof."

Peta Seaton, state MP for the Southern Highlands, called on the
federal Labor leader, Mark Latham, to rule the site out. ###

wrote in message
...
SYD MH: Found: a new airport option
May 28, 2004 [ Good access to transport and utilities but surrounded
only by villages . . . the rural landscape near Sutton Forest, south
of Sydney, close to the site of the latest option for the second
airport. Photo: Dallas Kilponen ]



First nominated about 30 years ago!

--
Tony Bailey
Mercury Travel Books

On Thu, 27 May 2004 23:42:59 -0500,
wrote:

SYD MH: Found: a new airport option

By Anne Davies, Urban Affairs Editor

May 28, 2004

And here is the Federal Leader's (John Howard) reply:
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/...641715693.html

Methinks Sydney will never have a second ariport.

i don't think that sydney needs a second airport. we just have to shut
the whingers up that buy houses under the flight path and then complain.
you bought UNDER AN AIRPORT FLIGHT PATH, OF COURSE YOU'RE GOING TO GET
AIRCRAFT NOISE!
isn't KSA running at only around 1/2 capacity? not to mention the fact
that it's shut down for 7 hours every day as well?

Tom Hatfield wrote:
On Thu, 27 May 2004 23:42:59 -0500,
wrote:


SYD MH: Found: a new airport option

By Anne Davies, Urban Affairs Editor

May 28, 2004


And here is the Federal Leader's (John Howard) reply:
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/...641715693.html

Methinks Sydney will never have a second ariport.