2020-10-12 GC Agenda - Item 9 - Attachment 1 - Aircraft Noise Ombudsman Report - Investigation

10 Recommendations
10.1 When Airservices becomes involved in changed flight path design as a result
     of another party’s project, such as for a proposed runway, its obligation to
     consult with the community about the environmental effects of aircraft
     operations remain. Although this obligation may be discharged in cooperation
     with others, the lack of effective coordination between Airservices and
     Sunshine Coast Council in this case, makes it clear that any future
     assessment of and consultation on environmental impact by Airservices
     involving another party will require more careful consideration and, if joint
     assessment is to occur, much more careful planning, commitment and
     attention from those involved as well as effective governance mechanisms to
     ensure that relative responsibilities are adequately discharged. To avoid
     similar challenges in the future, Airservices needs to engage early in the
     planning stages of third party-initiated projects and maintain an ongoing
     interest as the projects progress.

                                    Airservices should develop a framework for third party
                                    proposed changes that:
                                    (a) provides robust and dependable governance
                                        arrangements to manage its early and ongoing
                                        engagement with third parties
                                    (b) establishes clear lines of accountability and documents
                                        these arrangements as they evolve
                                    (c) ensures an effective consultative process, which includes
                                        monitoring the adequacy of any third party consultations
                                        being relied on.
10.2 In considering the wide range of submissions it received and accepting further
     representations after the consultation period closed, Airservices acknowledged
     that there were some community-suggested alternatives that may offer better
     noise outcomes and are worthy of further investigation. In the short timeframe
     it had to finalise its designs for CASA approval ahead of the scheduled
     implementation date, these could not be properly assessed. However,
     Airservices committed to further considering these options as part of its Post
     Implementation Review process.

                                    Airservices should, as soon as practicable, design an
                                    effective post-implementation review (PIR) process for the
                                    Sunshine Coast flight path designs, that does not perpetuate
                                    design constraints requiring alignment with EIS concepts,
                                    and which encompasses:
                                    (a) consideration of identified community-suggested
                                        alternatives
                                    (b) a community engagement process that provides for
                                        genuine opportunities for community contributions to
                                        influence decisions
                                    (c) application of the latest version of Airservices’ National
                                        Operating Standard (NOS) Environmental Management
                                        of Changes to Aircraft Operations (AA-NOS-ENV-2.100).
Aircraft Noise Ombudsman
Investigation into complaints about the introduction of new flight paths in the Sunshine Coast (April 2020)   Page 30