Airport noise is making him plane mad!
BY his own estimates the Tingalpa resident has made about 270,000 complaints to authorities since Brisbane Airport opened in 1988.
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BY his own estimates the Tingalpa resident has made about 270,000 complaints to authorities since Brisbane Airport opened in 1988.
He says he lodges an average of 31 grumbles, gripes and grievances every night.
"Every plane that comes in over my place that I can hear over the TV I make a complaint and if I'm woken up I make a complaint and put a nasty little note with it," Mr Bill said.
According to data from Airservices Australia, Mr Bill may have overestimated his complaint rate - but not by much.
Their records reveal that since January 2009 they have registered 19,809 complaints from Brisbane, with a whopping 13,475 coming from a single source.
The next two highest complainants clocked in at 975 and 930 complaints respectively, with the top three making up almost 80 per cent of total complaints.
Although some nights Mr Bill makes only one or two complaints, his own records show that he made a full 40 complaints on October 12, another 35 on the night of October 23 and 30 on both October 1 and 2.
Although his relentless complaints have so far come to nothing, Mr Bill said he refused to back down.
"I'm not going to give up the fight. They're going to give in before I will, or the computer's going to break down," he said.
Mr Bill, whose family has lived in the house since the early 1970s, said Brisbane residents were promised aircraft would take off and land over the bay when the new airport was built, and he's holding authorities to that promise.
"They're going to make me out as a serial complainer that won't go away. Well, they're right - I won't go away, but it's not because I like complaining, I'm just keeping them honest," he said.
Mr Bill also has inundated a range of politicians with his concerns including Kevin Rudd, who he said had done nothing to address the issue despite riding to office on a wave of public disgruntlement with aircraft noise.
He said Airservices Australia's new policy of reporting the number of people making complaints, rather than the complaints themselves, would serve to whitewash the volume of community anger at aircraft noise and urged disgruntled residents to join him to have their voice heard.
An Airservices Australia spokeswoman said the move to focus more on the number of people who complained, rather than the total number of complaints, was made on the recommendation of the Aircraft Noise Ombudsman.
She said the organisation took all complaints seriously, and worked closely with the community to balance the needs of residents with those of the aviation industry.
A spokesman from Mr Rudd's office said Mr Rudd had called for a review into a curfew for Brisbane Airport, which was now under way.
anthony.gough@news.com.au
