The public will have their say at a May hearing into Ali Williams and Anna Mowbray’s plans for a helicopter pad at their $24 million Westmere home. Photo / Supplied
The public will have their say at a May hearing into Ali Williams and Anna Mowbray’s plans for a helicopter pad at their $24 million Westmere home. Photo / Supplied
The public will have their say at a May hearing into Ali Williams and Anna Mowbray’s plans for a helicopter pad at their $24 million Westmere home.
The five-day hearing will include expert evidence and submissions from those opposing and supporting the plans.
Many public submitters have opposed the plans, saying the helicopter will disturb neighbours and endangered coastal birds, while the couple’s consultants say there will be minimal disturbance.
A five-day public hearing is set to be held next month to decide whether billionaire couple Ali Williams and Anna Mowbray can build a helicopter pad at their $24 million waterfront property.
With hundreds of Aucklanders already making written submissions on the proposed Westmere take-off and landing pad, many are expected to show up in person for the five-day hearing from Monday, May 12, to Friday, May 16.
Commissioners will listen to expert evidence and hear from members of the public wanting to speak to the plan.
Williams and Mowbray hope to build the helipad as part of the redevelopment of their 4530sq m property, which sits on a headland jutting into a coastal marine area.
An independent commissioner in October decided the application should be heard before the public because of its potential impact on neighbours and the environment.
That included take-off and landing noise potentially affecting neighbours and roosting and sleeping seabirds, the commissioner said.
The Westmere property for which a helicopter pad consent is sought. Photo / Dean Purcell
Consultants Bioresearchers, hired by ex-All Black Williams and billionaire Mowbray, performed 16 surveys about the habitat of nearby birdlife and concluded the helicopter wouldn’t be much of a disturbance for residents or birds.
“The response... confirms that adverse effects on recreational activity will be no more than minor; although Unitary Plan noise standards are exceeded at certain neighbouring properties, written consent has been provided by all affected properties and effects on ecologically important avifauna will be avoided,” Bioresearchers said.
Quiet Sky Waitemata, a group formed to oppose the use of private helicopters in residential areas, said at the time there is growing data about the delicate nature of the ecosystem and birds using the nearby coastline
“To our surprise and delight there are quite a significant number of endangered species that use it as a safe haven. The thought the birds would go without a voice is really concerning,” the group’s secretary Elena Keith said.
Ali Williams and Anna Mowbray regularly feature in the Herald's celebrity pages.
Plans for the helipad had in total received 1397 public submissions, with 91% or 1277 opposed to it, 108 supporting it and 12 being neutral, according to a Stuff report in February.
The couple spent $24m buying their property at Rawene Ave in 2021, previously owned by film director Andrew Adamson, with plans to demolish and replace it with a three-level home with an underground basement.
Briscoes boss Rod Duke went ahead and built a boatshed without a helipad in Herne Bay. Photo / Alex Burton
They are also not the only applicants to have become embroiled in helicopter issues around the uber-wealthy suburbs of Westmere and Herne Bay.
Rich-list couple Simon and Paula Herbert backed down on taking more helicopter flights to and from their $30m home in Herne Bay in 2022.
They wanted to double the number of flights at their Cremorne St property from two flights a week to four a week. When their application went out for public consultation it attracted 130 submissions, all opposed.
Another rich-lister, Briscoes boss Rod Duke, faced strong public opposition when he tried to build a James Bond-style helipad in Herne Bay with a roof that folds back on a revamped boat shed at Sentinel Beach. He backed down, completing the boat shed with a fixed roof.
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