Toowoomba council meets with Wellcamp Airport ahead of crucial vote on future of city aerodrome

John Wagner has revealed a top council bureaucrat approached him about moving tenants from the Toowoomba City Airport to Wellcamp. The move comes as the aerodrome users sweat on a fast-tracked decision by councillors this week:

Toowoomba City Aerodrome. Picture: Kevin Farmer

The future of the Toowoomba City Airport remains in doubt after it was revealed one of the council’s most powerful bureaucrats met with Wellcamp Airport officials to discuss relocating major tenants.

Councillors will meet on Tuesday to discuss the result of a months-long financial review into the aerodrome, having been brought forward a month from its original due date.

The move has blindsided the dozens of tenants at the airport represented by the Toowoomba City Community Airport group and raised fears the council is looking at selling the asset.

Those anxieties were amplified after powerful businessman John Wagner confirmed a senior council bureaucrat paid an unscheduled visit to his company’s Toowoomba Wellcamp Airport several months ago.

John Wagner of Wagner Corporation. Picture: Kevin Farmer

The senior bureaucrat, believed to be finance and business strategy general manager Ann-Marie Johnston, had reportedly asked airport GM Kellie Banditt whether it could cater for some of the TCCA’s larger tenants.

It is understood the query related to reported annual losses at the aerodrome of $1.5m.

Mr Wagner said he told the council he could take them all, while noting any tenants who did move to Wellcamp would be paying higher leases.

“The issue with the aerodrome, and I’m totally ambivalent as to whether they close it or not, but what I do have an issue is running it at a loss, it’s being subsidised by all other ratepayers,” he told News Corp.

“We can take all of them (the tenants), the issue that they will have is that anyone who comes to Wellcamp have to pay commercial rates.

“We would welcome the opportunity to take them.”

Mr Wagner stressed he had never approached the council about the opportunity and that he had no involvement in long-term proposals for a new stadium at the TCCA site by developer Ian Knox.

News of the meeting was met with outrage by tenants, who said they had received little communication from the council while being placed on month-by-month leases.

Concerned about the future of the Toowoomba City Community Airport are (from left) veteran pilot David Laughton and Toowoomba City Community Airport group president Matt Handley.

TCCA group president Matt Handley more than 1000 people would either lose their jobs or be impacted if the council chose to close the airport.

“There are at least five maintenance facilities on the airfield, there are three flying schools, there are numerous private aircraft used in business opportunities and we also have LifeFlight and QFES here, and the airfield is serviced by the Royal Flying Doctor Service regularly,” he told the media on Friday.

“I’m standing in front of a hangar that employs 17 people – specialists in aviation maintenance and flying — they’ll lose their jobs.

“To this point, no one from the council has been out to see any of the leaseholders, there’s been no community engagement (related to the financial review).

“It’s quite stressful, when you have an uncertain future, we’ve had companies here invest millions of dollars in aircraft and hangars.”

The Cirrus SR20 on approach to Toowoomba Aerodrome. Photo Andrew Backhouse / The Chronicle

The lack of communication has been exacerbated by the council rejecting a Right To Information (RTI) request by one of the tenants into the airport’s financial records after it was determined the requested documents were “non-existent”.

“They’re either not telling the truth and not providing the information, or they’re incompetent,” Mr Handley said.

Toowoomba mayor Geoff McDonald said financial records for the TCCA did exist, but did not explain why the RTI request was rejected.

“Like many of council’s assets, the aerodrome is subject to an annual full cost pricing review for both budget and annual financial reporting purposes,” he said in a statement.

“The review was carried out in accordance with National Competition Policy and appropriate sections of Local Government Regulation 2012.

“The reporting for previous financial years indicates that council does not recover the full cost of the aerodrome activities from revenue generated by leases/landing fees.

“Council does not have a predetermined outcome and will fully consider any options raised on Tuesday.”

Mr McDonald also confirmed the TRC had held “high level discussions of a general nature” with Wellcamp Airport.