Warnervale Airport: councillors call for community survey
THREE councillors will try for the third time to allow the community to finally see the Warnervale Airport draft masterplan and vote on whether the site should be developed or abandoned.
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THE future of Warnervale Airport is back on Central Coast Council’s agenda, with three councillors fighting for the community to be involved in the decision.
Councillors Greg Best, Bruce McLachlan and Jilly Pilon are bringing a rescission motion to Monday night’s council meeting to overturn the November 27, 2017 decision to suspend all works at the airport including any plans for development of an aviation hub.
This is the third time a rescission motion has been lodged on this issue, having been voted down at meetings in December 2017 and March 2018.
The councillors lodging the rescission motion want to formally consult with the community on the airport through a survey.
Following the survey, they are calling for council to reconsider its position on both suspending works as well as not exhibiting the airport masterplan.
In the motion, the councillors note that the airport issue is of “significant community interest”.
Councillor McLachlan said the whole airport masterplan and other supporting documents needed to be formally exhibited to the community.
“They never had the formal right of input into the airport under former Wyong Shire Council in this long political saga,” he said.
“If the new Central Coast Council had stuck to the original staff recommendation and good governance procedure, and Labor not amended and blocked the recommendation to formally exhibit the masterplan, we would not find ourselves embroiled in further controversy.”
He said party politics had resulted in the council “tearing up the potential new high tech aviation industry, an aviation university school of excellence, and general employment opportunities”.
“The councillors do not own the Central Coast Airport land. It’s owned by the people of the Central Coast. I do not understand why they would not wish to be open and transparent, and consult with their residents, on such a major infrastructure asset.
“It’s time to end the shroud of secrecy and have a formal community debate on our only aviation infrastructure. Once it’s gone it’s gone, future generations of electric planes and drone infrastructure, will not be based on the Coast. If it is as unpopular project as the councillors’ claim, the public feedback will support their argument of closure and sale.”
In 2016, Premier Mike Baird made the trip to the Coast to announce Amphibian Aerospace Industries would relocate its off-shore manufacturing to the Coast as part of the airport redevelopment.
A confidential item from the June 25 council meeting, surrounding council’s involvement with Amphibian Aerospace Industries, is also coming back to the agenda.