Residents welcome Whenuapai decision

Photo / The Aucklander

Waitakere City Council has decided not to change the district plan rules for Whenuapai Air Base after spending $517,000 on preparations.

A residents' group spokesman welcomed rejection of the council policy by nine votes to five on Wednesday night as "a huge relief".

It ended seven years of uncertainty and worry for residents that their homes would be under the flight approaches to a proposed commercial airport, said Russell Stewart, of Whenuapai Airbase Action Group.

"It's the right decision ... it should have been made months ago when the Government indicated clearly that the Air Force was staying and was not sharing the base."

But Mayor Bob Harvey said people would have more certainty if the district plan change had gone ahead and preserved the potential of 273ha of the air base for aviation.

"This change has been about trying to protect the infrastructure for the future," he said.

"It was to ensure that should the Defence Force one day move away or try to sell off parts of the area there were some controls on what happens with that land."

Mr Stewart said residents of Waitakere and North Shore had been caught by the previous government's decision to consolidate the Air Force at Ohakea in the Manawatu.

But a change of government had resulted in a decision on March 31 to give Whenuapai Base a $60 million upgrade and keep it until 2020.

Mr Stewart said the residents' group was shocked to learn the council had spent $517,000 on plan change preparations.

"How many community activities and projects could have been more usefully served by that money?"

He said the group had spent about $50,000 on opposing a commercial airport and received $19,000 from Auckland International Airport.