Wellcamp Airport comes under fire from Alan Jones
RADIO presenter Alan Jones has called for a Royal Commission into the events leading to the approval of Wellcamp Airport.
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RADIO presenter Alan Jones has called for a Royal Commission into the events leading to the approval of Wellcamp Airport and the heavy-industry precinct that surrounds it.
Mr Jones launched a 20-minute on-air tirade about political intrigue, loss of prime agricultural land and lack of due process going back to the 1990s.
The 2GB shock jock alluded to back-room deals he believed were made between former Toowoomba Regional Council Mayor Peter Taylor and Wagners co-founder Denis Wagner, who both served on Jondaryan Shire Council prior to amalgamation.
"Suddenly people find out the zoning has been changed to (allow) heavy and extractive industries for the entire site of Wellcamp Downs." Mr Jones said.
"(Then) the Bligh government stuck a buffer zone around the area.
"This is Royal Commission stuff.
"The lifestyle and land values of all the families and properties... have been dumped into the buffer zone in order to protect and maximise the Wagner family investment."
He also took a call from Wellcamp Downs thoroughbred horse breeder Heather Pascoe Brown - a close friend - whose property falls within the buffer zone that now surrounds the industrial site.
She talked about the "legal loophole" that allowed the application for Wellcamp Airport to be code-assessable, rather than impact-assessable, meaning no community consultation was needed before its approval.
"Those jets will have a flight path that comes in over the town of Oakey, they'll come down the Wellcamp Valley and land and they'll take off and fly over the town of Westbrook," she said.
"So there are thousands of people who will be under the flight path.
"They don't know and all their properties will be devalued and they have no recompense whatsoever because of how it's been applied."
Listen to Alan Jones' segment on Wellcamp Downs here.
Originally published as Wellcamp Airport comes under fire from Alan Jones
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