15 October, 2007

North Shore position on Whenuapai will not affect Waitakere

Waitakere City Council is disappointed that new North Shore Mayor Andrew Williams does not support the Whenuapai airport proposal, but says it will make no difference to Waitakere’s plans.

“Waitakere was promoting the airport on it own and the North Shore council asked if it could join in because it saw the benefits to the region,” says six-time Waitakere Mayor Bob Harvey.

“We were happy to have them aboard but we would have gone ahead if they hadn’t joined and we will go ahead if they pull out. It won’t affect what we do,” he says.

“The only difference is that North Shore will lose the economic benefits of being a part owner and that is sad for their ratepayers because they have the potential of earning a dividend for their ratepayers – but that’s their business,” Mr Harvey says.

Mr Harvey says that the resource consent process for establishing the special Airport Zone will go ahead soon and people would be surprised by the facts that will emerge.

“There has been a great deal of misinformation about the proposed airport. The most recent example was a map that showed the whole of the North Shore under flight paths to Whenuapai. That was utter nonsense. Unfortunately it was typical of the dishonesty we have had to contend with.

“A lot of technical work has been done on the effects of the airport. These facts will be supplied in support of the resource consent applications. They will tell the truth of the matter,” says Mayor Harvey.

“Most of the opponents conveniently overlook the fact that Whenuapai is already a functioning airbase and they chose to live close to it. It has far more movements than they’ve ever been prepared to admit to, often in noisier aircraft than are run by modern airlines

“Furthermore, these people conveniently forget to mention that the North Shore is already under the flight paths for Auckland International Airport,” he says.

ENDS

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