How to feel like an idiot and waste a lot

[Guest mcoates]

Greetings chatters, at the request of our chief executive officer I took the time to write a very detailed letter to the Harvey Bay Shire Council based on the information which was supplied in the latest magazine. After a few weeks of correspondence with the Harvey Bay Council they have finally put a reply up on their website responding to the article in recreational aviation Australia magazine.

 

If the magazine is going to print something and ask for our assistance to help an airport from closure or in the case of Harvey Bay report that the Cross strip was going to be resumed for industrial land then atleast the report needs to be accurate !!

 

What annoys me personally is it took me about an hour and a half to do a letter to each of the Harvey Bay councillors, then both e-mail and post the correspondence to them. It is not the fact that cost money to do this it is a fact that I wasted time which could have honestly been spent on better things. Please see the link below to be taken to the Harvey Bay website or I've taken an opportunity to cut and paste the information. Unfortunately it makes us look like idiots

 

HelloMichael. Thank you for taking the time to write to me. I understand your concerns regarding the cross runway but would like to refer you to the media release which is Councils response to the allegations recently published in an aviation magazine. It is a shame that the magazine didn't contact Council to verify the story but I hope that our media release eases your concerns. Please don't hesitate to contact me at any time about Council related concerns.

 

http://www.herveybay.qld.gov.au/news/index.shtml

 

Airport Cross Runway

 

18/12/2006

 

Ken Fox

 

Phone: (07)4125 9 730

 

We refer to an article: Heat rises on Hervey Bay Airfield, page 51 of the November issue of Recreational Aviation Australia.

 

The article is utter rubbish. The Council is very disappointed that no one from your magazine contacted the Council to check the facts before publication.

 

The facts are laid out below and we ask that the Council's response is given airing in your publication.

 

The Hervey Bay City Council has not walked away from building a cross runway at its airport.

 

The first 300 metres of the runway was built (150 metres either side of the main runway centre line) when the main runway was strengthened to cater for jet aircraft last year.

 

Because of the popularity of the jet services, almost 200,000 passenger movements in 15 months, the Council has engaged consultants to create a Master Plan for the airport.

 

In preparing the Master Plan the consultant has had meetings with the airport users about the need and position of the cross runway. Some users would like to see it re-positioned, by up to 45 degrees, to face into the wind so that aircraft and pilots who are more sensitive to cross wind conditions can use the facility.

 

To say the Council is abandoning the cross runway is farcical. Construction work stopped for the time being while Council waits for the Master Plan to be completed.

 

Claims in Recreational Aviation Australia that if the cross runway had been operational the airport would not have been closed after the incident with a Yak 52 in September are completely wrong.

 

Even if the Yak 52 had been on the cross runway the airport would still have been closed because spilt fuel and debris spread over a wide area had to be cleaned up.

 

The Yak 52 did not crash on landing. Its landing gear failed as it was taxing along the runway after landing. It would not have mattered on which runway it landed as the landing gear would still have failed.

 

The airport was not closed for four hours as claimed in the article. It was closed for about 1.5 hours.

 

Since the incident it has been claimed that people's lives were being put at risk because the lack of a cross runway meant that medical flights could not land here if an emergency did close the airport.

 

The claim lacks credibility as medical flights could still land at Maryborough and patients could be transferred by road to the waiting aircraft. Helicopters can still land at the Hervey Bay Hospital to pick up or drop off patients at all hours of the day and night.

 

The Hervey Bay City Council is preparing a responsible master plan for the future development of the Hervey Bay airport. The plan outlines areas for future development, such as more hangars and aircraft related businesses, a bigger terminal and more car parks.

 

Once the draft master plan is finished it will be presented to the Airport Users Group for feedback.

 

The plan will look at the requirements for the cross runway including the best location in light of prevailing winds and other business in the airport precinct, especially the development of the Hervey Bay Airport Industrial Park which is next door to the airport.

 

The industrial park, which will be worth $75million and businesses employing up to 2000 workers, was developed by the Hervey Bay City Council and Sea Shift Pty Ltd. It has created a master-planned industrial estate that would attract businesses to the city, especially those wanting to set up next to an airport.

 

Ken Fox

 

Director of City Assets

 

Hervey Bay City Council

 

 

 

[Guest David C]

You are correct ..... It does make us look like idiots .

 

I would hope a letter of apology , or at the very least, a statement outling the RAAus position on this obvious piece of misinformation should be forthcoming from the RAAus executive both to the Hervey Bay council and also to its members .

 

Like you , I am not happy with this .

 

 

[Galpin]

Let's wait and see what the RAA team has to say. There is probably more to this than is currently known. Lester N , have you got input for this?

 

 

[Ben Longden]

Lets not lose sight of the fact that local & state government often uses the hiring of consultants to establish a master plan as a means of

 

1) dealying any existing project indefinitely and

 

2) ensuring the consultants recommendations match those of the original council intention.

 

Sorry this sounds cynical, but after working for 25 years in the news gathering business, I have seen this happen all too often.

 

Also, the formal rebuttal letter is used as part of the spin doctoring to reduce the credibility of the media organisation when said media outlet has uncovered the truth.

 

Ben

 

 

[Guest pelorus32]

Michael,

 

I wouldn't take it too much to heart. As Ben says the current game at all levels of government is spin, spin, spin...It makes it very hard to sort the wheat from the chaff.

 

The positive of course is that the Council is certainly aware that their actions on the airport are under scrutiny.

 

Very cynical of me I know...but I think many of us are so over spin that even when a response might be genuine the prevalence of spin makes us cynical. Politicians and governments are reaping what they have sown.

 

Regards

 

Mike

 

 

[TechMan]

Lets not lose sight of the fact that local & state government often uses the hiring of consultants to establish a master plan as a means of1) dealying any existing project indefinitely and

 

2) ensuring the consultants recommendations match those of the original council intention.

 

Sorry this sounds cynical, but after working for 25 years in the news gathering business, I have seen this happen all too often.

 

Also, the formal rebuttal letter is used as part of the spin doctoring to reduce the credibility of the media organisation when said media outlet has uncovered the truth.

 

Ben

Very insightful thinking Ben and spot on.

 

It is fair to assume that our CEO would not write anything without doing some sort of homework on it to make sure that his comments have at least a teenie bit of credibility to them, and in this case, I believe there is documentation in his possession which states exactly what he has written in the mentioned article.

 

I will ask the CEO to prepare a short brief on the subject which I will post here for those interested.

 

Chris

 

 

[Admin]

[pylon500]

How can you tell when a bureaucrat is lying?:;)4:

 

A= Anytime his lips move! ;)

 

Arthur.

 

 

[Ultralights]

the Council has engaged consultants

so in other words, Nothing will happen.... except the wasting of ratepayers money.