CITY of Canning suburbs could be “noise bombed” by aircraft if Perth Airport’s cross-runway is removed, according to Councillor Jesse Jacobs.
Cr Jacobs is the City’s representative on the Perth Airports Municipalities Group (PAMG) that meets every three months to discuss the effect of the upcoming expansion of the airport on local government areas.
He said that at a recent PAMG meeting, members were informed that Perth Airport’s proposal had changed from a third runway to a parallel runway, with plans to remove the existing cross-runway.
Cr Jacobs said the cross-runway currently funnelled aircraft traffic over Belmont, Victoria Park and South Perth on the south-western aircraft runway approach and over Swan View and Greenmount on the northeastern approach.
He said if the cross-runway was removed, there would be two north-south runways, with resulting limitations placed on aircraft noise sharing between the suburbs.
“The plan pre-2017 called for three runways that could potentially be able to share sound,” he said. “Recently this year, it has changed to wanting just two runways pointing in Canning’s direction.”
Cr Jacobs said suburbs including Cannington, East Cannington, Welshpool, Queens Park, Ferndale and Lynwood would experience more noise if the cross-runway was removed and sound sharing was not implemented.
“It means we will take the brunt of all aircraft movement noise in and out of Perth International Airport,” he said. “The worst- case scenario is for the next 50 to 100 years these suburbs are continually noise bombed.”