Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government Catherine King said today that her department was dealing with 8000 submissions to the Western Sydney (Nancy-Bird Walton) Airport (WSI) Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).
The EIS included assessments of the noise, social and environmental impacts of the WSI preliminary flight paths and the ALP government’s proposed actions to mitigate these impacts. It was released in June 2023 and is separate from the airspace design recently released for comment.
"This included a draft policy for noise treatments to existing properties most impacted by aircraft noise and considerations for any potential acquisition of property," Minister King said
"This feedback will be considered when finalising the flight path design.
"The Australian Government appreciates that WSI’s flight paths has caused some concern for community members, particularly around aircraft overflight noise.
"That is why we released WSI’s preliminary flight paths early, in June 2023, and undertook a range of community information and feedback sessions so that communities were across the detail of the flight paths and could contribute to the process by making a submission."
Since the release of the preliminary flight paths, the department has held 46 drop-in sessions and information stalls across western Sydney, Blue Mountains and Greater Sydney, as well as two online webinars.
Airservices Australia has supplemented the engagement with an additional eight events.
The public comment period for the EIS has now closed.