Environmental hassle
 

I would like to know if anybody out there has had something to do with environmental types. I live close to and fly from a small Dutch airfield in the south of the Netherlands.

Last year we were 'lucky' to be invited on discussions on how to use the airfield, now and in the future.

I have never experienced this much anti-attitude from so few people. They claim to represent 'the majority of people living around the airfield'. So far, even after asking several times, they will not produce any memberlist, or numbers of members at all.

The worrying thing is, that county councils are going to have a BIG say in the operation of airfields (RRKL) in the Netherlands in the nearby future. This will, I fear, leave us with political choices instead of 'sound mind'

Anybody any hints and/or tips??????

Stand your own candidates for the council and in the election literature remind them how many people will be unemployed by the closure. When the votes are tallied you will see how silent the majority is.

On the avcanada board there was an appeal for voters to turn out in a certain town to beat a mayor candidate who was promising to shut down the local airfield - the candidate lost and the winner is supportive of continuing operations (if only this would work in Toronto...)

Re: Environmental hassle
 

In the Netherlands, you have some very tough environmental laws, but I hope a bit more ability for rational debate than we do here in the UK.

CVT has had a long running saga with the locals - but less than 50 complaints (out of 500 or so) to last year's public inquiry came from within the boundaries of Coventry itself, despite such areas being much closer to the end of the runway.

Airports are commercial businesses - if they have a good business case, they will put it forward. There really isn't much point in launching a "pro" campaign for such an entity, unless you have free time on your hands by the bucket load.

By all means, ask a few questions of the anti-group. Those who speak out loudest against the "secrecy" of commercial "greed" tend to be the ones who:

a) are most secretive about the organisation they claim to represent, and

b) fly the most often.

You could try using environmental logic too - local flights for local people, not to mention the congestion at AMS which your local field might be able to relieve a little.