The Hume Residents Airport Action Group set up an information booth at Gladstone Park shopping centre on November 14 to distribute information about the airport’s proposed east-west runway, which would affect Gladstone Park, Westmeadows, Tullamarine and Broadmeadows residents.
Group spokesman Frank Rivoli, who is also a member of Melbourne Airport’s Community Aviation Consultation Group (CACG), an independent forum set up to canvas the issues and impacts of the airport, said more than 300 signatures were collected in just six hours.
“That’s one signature every minute-and- a-half, which shows there’s a lot of concern,” Mr Rivoli said.
“It shows that people want more information about how the third runway is going to impact their houses.”
Mr Rivoli was one of a number of volunteers who handed out fliers outlining the group’s argument against a third runway, specifically one with an east-west orientation.
The group’s flier cites its main objections as being that “the current runways will not reach capacity for years to come”, while local communities will suffer from noise, pollution and vibration from low-flying aircraft, and house prices will suffer.
Mr Rivoli said the state government needed to start talking about retrofitting houses with insulation as part of plans for the extra runway.
“We need our health looked after.”
Melbourne Airport spokeswoman Anna Gillet said the community would be kept abreast of the progress of its runway development program (RDP), which includes the proposed third runway.
“We are currently undertaking a range of technical studies, with the findings of the ecological study having been released at the CACG forum in August,” Ms Gillet said.
She said a recent public awareness campaign about major projects, such as Terminal 4, RDP, Airport Drive and other developments, had engaged “about 400 people”.
Mr Rivoli said his group would conduct its own counter-campaign next year.
