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Wednesday 4 October 2023
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Airport wants to widen its runway
Picture: Gary Sissons
PENINSULA Aero Club wants to widen the north/south runway at Tyabb Airport. In a planning application to Mornington Peninsula Shire Council PAC asks permission to add three metre wide constructed shoulders to either side of the 10 metre wide runway. Long time airport watcher Brewis Atkinson believes the widened and strengthened runway will lead to more commercial and training aircraft using the airport. Atkinson wants objectors to the plan to urge the shire to impose curfews on the use of the airport by non-emergency flights; set an annual cap of 18,000 take-offs and landings (with touch-and-go counting as two movements); and limit the use of noisy aircraft (exceeding 70 decibels on take-off). He said objections should also be sent to Watson Ward councillor Kate Roper. Roper told The News that residents should ask council’s planning department for “accurate information” about the airport’s request. “This planning application will be dealt with in line with the normal planning process,” she said. The News was unable to contact PAC president Stephen Braim. The club will hold its annual general meeting on 12 October. Keith Platt
Hopes new premier will fix old problems Keith Platt keith@mpnews.com.au THE Committee for Frankston and Mornington Peninsula wasted no time last week in congratulating Jacinta Allan on her new job as state premier. The lobby group said Allan’s appointment was an opportunity to “collaborate” with the government on a “long list of major advocacy projects” for Frankston and the peninsula. “The committee seeks a renewed
focus and consultative approach by the state government on addressing the major challenges and opportunities within our region, including better connectivity and public transport, more funding for housing on the peninsula, unlocking port-zoned land to create local jobs, better access to health and education opportunities, investment in roads and infrastructure, and the establishment of the Victorian renewable energy terminal in Hastings,” committee CEO Josh Sinclair said.
Most priorities listed by the committee are no different from those raised first by its predecessors, the Committee for Frankston and the Committee for Mornington Peninsula. The now-amalgamated committees have for years separately lobbied for more state government money, better public transport and improved educational opportunities. Sinclair said the committee would “continue to advocate in a bipartisan way”, adding that later this month
October it was looking forward to “welcoming Opposition leader John Pesutto … for a discussion about the major challenges and opportunities in our region”. Former MP for Dunkley and Small Business and now family enterprise ombudsman Bruce Billson was a founding member and first president in March 2019 of the Committee for Mornington Peninsula. Last month he “helped relaunch” the merged committees.
In 2019 Billson said: “Our region has the lowest access to public transport facilities within metropolitan Melbourne, and this raises the question again about whether policy makers and transport planners even consider the Mornington Peninsula to be part of the metropolitan Melbourne. This impacts our community by inhibiting access to educational services, jobs and visitor connections to the region.” Continued Page 6