Growing opposition to Badgerys Creek

By Jonathan Strauss SYDNEY — A February 21 public meeting of more than 250 at the Parramatta Town Hall, called by western Sydney anti-airport noise groups, showed the growing opposition to the proposed construction of a major airport at Badgerys Creeks. The proposal, which is currently the subject of an Environmental Impact Statement, is opposed because it will subject large areas of western Sydney to greater noise and air pollution, endanger Sydney's water supply in two dams under likely flight paths and create major traffic problems. Moreover, the site's bad weather could make the airport unusable for many weeks a year. Some speakers raised strong doubts that the EIS would find these problems since the EIS processes are controlled by the development proponents and exist primarily to exhaust opposition to environmentally damaging developments. Peter Cork from the Fairfield Residents against Airport Noise told Green Left Weekly that it was already clear that the EIS would be a waste of money. An airport at Badgerys, he said, was "going to entrench Kingsford-Smith forever" because of weather problems. "There is an obvious solution. That's to build a long-term international airport outside of the Sydney basin ... and to link it up with Sydney with a very fast train or some other fast service network."
["Move the airport out of Sydney": Viewpoint, page 11.]

From GLW issue 221