KEY POINTS:
I have made clear my opposition to the plans for a commercial airport at Whenuapai from the very outset.
- From John Key's letter
There's nothing like watching the executioner at work to concentrate the mind. Long-term North Shore mayor George Wood is hardly cold in his grave, felled by locals opposed to a commercial airport in their midst, and the two most at-risk local MPs have ganged together to avoid a similar fate.
National Party leader and MP for Helensville John Key has declared that he and any National Government he leads, "are totally opposed to any plans" to convert the existing Whenuapai Air Force base in his electorate into a commercial airport, a joint commercial/military base or, for that matter, a housing estate.
Taking the high moral ground he emphasises the need for "a major air force facility ... close to our major population centre". Though what difference it would make where our handful of rickety old transport and surveillance aircraft are based when the Commie? Muslim? Martian? hordes invade, he doesn't even try to explain.
On a more practical note he adds that the Air Force's "already acute staff recruitment and retention problems" will only be exacerbated by forcing our remaining fly-boys and their wives to the Siberia that is Ohakea.
His letter to the Whenuapai Airbase Action Group also lets the self-interest slip: "I want to emphasise that I have, as the MP for Helensville, made clear my opposition to the plans for a commercial airport at Whenuapai from the very outset. So, too, has my colleague Murray McCully, whose East Coast Bays electorate is the other area directly affected by the future of the airport."
But now the National leader and friend have moved to save their political skins - and whatever their reasons, opposing a second airport was the sane way to go - it will be interesting to see how they deal with one genuine gripe of proponents. That is the length of time it can take at rush hour to travel between Auckland airport and the western and northern suburbs.
So far, National transport policy has offered no long-term solutions, remaining stuck in the old, failed, build-more-motorways rut.
What would help Parnell-dwelling Mr Key to prove his Westie credentials - and help his travelling constituents - would be if he were to say, I'll ensure your dream of a handy airport by backing a fast and efficient electric train service through Onehunga to the existing Mangere-based airport instead.
He could go even further and promise to fast-track the long planned rail line through Mt Roskill and Hillsborough, for which provision is already being made alongside the rapidly emerging State Highway 20 expansion. That way Westie passengers would not have to detour through the Newmarket bottleneck.
In less than a month, more than 4000 people have signed a petition trying to persuade Transit New Zealand to at least make provision for a future rail link alongside the planned second Manukau Harbour road bridge.
Signatories include Auckland Regional Council chairman Mike Lee, Manukau Mayor Len Brown and assorted other local politicians. The petition organiser, The Campaign for Better Transport, is also appealing to the Environment Court to force Transit New Zealand to do this, and mediation sessions have already taken place.
What the campaign really needs is some political grunt from the parliamentary arena as well.
Waitakere City Mayor Bob Harvey outlined the problem in a letter to the Herald last year. He was making the case for a second airport.
"Already, 81,000 vehicles a day visit Mangere. More than a third of them travel from Waitakere City, North Shore and Rodney, choking our already over-congested roads. Auckland Airport projects that figure to rise to 153,000 in 10 years."
Mr Harvey opposed Auckland Airport's demand that $2.9 million be spent on additional roads and motorways to ease the problem, arguing a second airport at Whenuapai was the answer.
Of course another answer would be to spend that money - or part of it - on upgrading the rail service, so that sensible Westie fliers, could jump aboard a train and reach Auckland airport rapidly while avoiding the over-congested roads altogether.
