[Forum] What can we make of this Council’s renaming of Central Coast Airport to Warnervale Aircraft Landing Area (ALA)?
Well, it’s about perception.
It removes the emphasis from a Central Coast asset to just a local Warnervale asset.
This makes it easier for Central Coast Council to slip it into some non-aviation related development plan, just like it might rezone Council owned land for any purpose.
In this case, they are keen to encourage any sort of industry, health, food, waste, renewable energy, and manufacturing, but not aviation industry.
Of course, the anti-airport majority in Council refuses to see aviation industry as involving manufacturing.
They aborted the AAI business, which was specifically manufacturing, but according to the CEN proxies Greenaway, Smith and their ideologically blinkered cohorts, opening the door to aviation industry is simply not an option, despite the fact that airfields and aviation businesses are kith and kin.
And some of their preferred industries for the airport site are heavily polluting, which surely do not fit with CEN’s stated “green credentials”, for example, what is “waste” industry?
The first thing that springs to mind is a high temperature incinerator, burning hazardous chemicals, hospital waste, plastics, etc.
Just about everywhere that an attempt has been made to locate an incinerator has met with strong community opposition, and it’s hardly “green”.
Food processing covers anything from pet food to abattoirs, not in my backyard thanks.
Renewable energy industry does not produce energy, it uses one heck of a lot, and making solar panels from complex chemicals, or wind turbine components from metal alloys is hardly “green”.
On the other hand, building airplane components in a factory is a clean process.
Repairing or maintaining aircraft is mostly hands-on.
Visit an aviation hangar sometime and you will notice that the environment is spotless and the noise you will hear is most likely mechanics talking.
Changing the name from Central Coast Airport to Warnervale Aviation Landing Area means nothing as it has always been an ALA.
It does mean that this Council will spend time, money and resources making new signs, just to score political points.
The Central Coast had an airport.
It needs an airport.
It deserves an airport.
Changing the name is a childish gesture that diminishes the Central Coast.
Given that these people have another 12 months to destroy our airport and any chance to develop an aviation industry on the Central Coast, we will no doubt see moves to encroach on land close to the airfield so as to preclude aviation manufacturing, repair and maintenance businesses and tourism and other businesses tied to air operations which have already stated that they wanted to set up at the airport.
It makes you wonder what the recalcitrant Councillors’ real motives are, because they are flying (pardon the pun) full force in the face of common sense.
Email, Aug 13
Geoff Robertson
Save Warnervale Airport