The Northland Emergency Services Trust's (NEST) rescue helicopter base is to be shifted from Kensington, above, but some are not happy about Onerahi Airport being the next base.
The Northland Emergency Services Trust's (NEST) rescue helicopter base is to be shifted from Kensington, above, but some are not happy about Onerahi Airport being the next base.
Opponents to Northland's Rescue Helicopter moving from Kensington to Onerahi Airport want a pause so that potential non-residential sites - previously explored but rejected - can be revisited.
Their call was made at the Whangārei District Council's first 2022 council meeting as they handed a 350-signature petition that opposed the plan to move the Northland Emergency Services Trust's (NEST) rescue helicopters to Onerahi Airport.
Opponents' representative Warren Thomas said his group supported NEST.
"We are all loyal supporters of NEST, but the next nest for NEST is not Onerahi," Thomas said in a presentation supporting the petition to councillors.
"We are asking … that the council hit the pause button on negotiating the NEST airport lease. We are also asking that the council asks NEST to critically examine all previous non-residential site investigations to locate a more suitable alternate new site for the currently Kensington-based service.''
Whangārei's industrial area was the closest runner-up when alternate sites were being looked at to shift the service.
WDC district development manager Tony Collins earlier said this was the former TDC sawmill in Union Street East St.
Collins said shifting the helicopter to this site would affect local businesses. The helicopter would still need to, on some occasions, go from there to Onerahi Airport. There were also Civil Aviation Authority of New Zealand (CAA) considerations.
Thomas said the needs of industrial area businesses should not outweigh those of impacted Onerahi residents. The airport was unusual in New Zealand for being closely surrounded by residential housing. Most airports were surrounded by industrial areas or open land, he said.
"We consider relocating NEST from one residential area to another is a fundamentally flawed decision," Thomas said.
Onerahi was Whangārei's seaside jewel, that quality needing protection, he said.
The noise from the helicopters would fundamentally change the quiet maritime suburb, he said. Planes arriving and departing at the airport produced different noise from helicopters. These flights operated only during the day.
"The imposition of night flights by noisy rescue helicopters is a huge burden on the community," he said.
Thomas said there had been only one helicopter in the Northland rescue service when a 2014 mooted Kensington shift to the airport was turned down, due to noise concerns.
There were now three helicopters involved, meaning there would be more than 1300 flights in and out of the airport each year – an average of three in a 24-hour period.
"The addition of helicopter maintenance, servicing, engine testing and hover training would add significantly to the noise allocation experienced by the residents. There's typically an hour of servicing for an hour of flying," Thomas said.
Onerahi's Warren Thomas calls for a pause on the rescue helicopter shift from Kensington to Onerahi at a recent Whangārei District Council meeting. Photo / Michael Cunningham
"The council will be repeating the Kensington experience of years of complaints and problems."
Thomas said the community was calling for a start to promised community consultation. Collins said the council and NEST would be presenting to the Onerahi community about the shift this month. Thomas said presentations to the community were not community consultation.
He said in 2003, there had been earlier attempts to include changes to Whangārei's District Plan to deal with airport noise concerns. The commissioner's ruling on these changes indicated that the council could not add them into the plan because it could not police itself.
The outcome had been the requirement for a formal Onerahi airport noise management plan.
