State Member for Wyong, Mr David Harris, has posed questions in the NSW Parliament about the Central Coast Council’s ongoing efforts to expand the airport at Warnervale.
Mr Harris’ questions were based on the contents of a 2013 feasibility study that had been kept confidential by the former Wyong Council and by Central Coast Council, as previously reported in the Wyong Regional Chronicle.
According to the study, made public through GIPA, the most feasible option the Council could have taken was to sell the airport land at Warnervale and allow it to be developed for industrial purposes.
“The first question is, when will the Warnervale Airport Restriction Act review be released?” Mr Harris asked.
“The second question is, why is the Central Coast Council lobbying the Government outside the independent process?
“The third question is, why will Council not follow the recommendations of the report it commissioned?” Mr Harris said.
Mr Harris questioned why ratepayer’s money had been used to commission a Warnervale airport feasibility study in 2013 when Council had subsequently kept the report confidential and given no public explanation of its decision to go with the option for the airport that the consultant rated as having the lowest feasibility.
“The report also shows that keeping the airport will have an adverse effect on the Wyong Employment Zone (WEZ), which is a major employment hub identified under the Central Coast Regional Plan.
“It’s clear from what I’ve read from the summary of that report that it may restrict other development on land which is ear marked for job creation,’ Mr Harris said.
“They have made a decision to spend millions on the airport when they have been in possession of a report that has recommended the opposite action to the one they’ve taken,” he said.
“As a community, we would expect that they would use public land to get the maximum number of jobs and economic value.
“According to the report that may not currently be the case.
“If they have got a reason or another report that says it’s the better option, then release it, but I don’t think there’s one that exists,” he said.
Before posing his questions in NSW Parliament, Mr Harris told the State’s Legislative Assembly: “The old Wyong Council had an obsession with building a regional airport and to that end it spends ratepayers’ money buying land.
“It has dumped three previous sites.
“The Council has now returned to the existing Warnervale airport site.”
He also spoke about Wyong resident, Mr Laurie Eyes’ battle with Council to gain access to the feasibility study using the Government Information Public Access (GIPA) law.
“One wonders why a public organisation such as a Council that is spending ratepayers’ money to develop a project will not let ratepayers see the feasibility study showing the reason for pursuing the project,” Mr Harris said.
“The Council’s annual reports show that the airport lost $635,000 last year, in 2014-15 it lost $265,000, and the value has been written down by about $450,000 over those two years.
“One wonders why, when Council is closing preschools and looking at closing pools, it is trying to maintain this asset.”
NSW Legislative Assembly Hansard,
Feb 16, 2017
David Harris,
Member for Wyong
Interview,
Feb 23, 2017
David Harris,
Member for Wyong
Jasmine Gearie, journalist
First published in the Wyong Regional Chronicle Feb 28, 2017.