4/3/07

“KCDC Must Hold Inquiry into Flawed Airport Documents”

KCDC Councillor Alan Tristram is demanding that the KCDC shelves Airport development plans while a full inquiry is held into faulty documents presented to a crucial Council meeting.

Cr Tristram, convenor of the Paraparaumu Airport Coalition, says the Coalition has obtained certified documents on three key issues showing that developer Noel Robinsons’ proposals contained serious errors.

He says that this misled councillors into thinking that the Airport proposals had Civil Aviation Authority and Iwi backing when they did not.

“If the Mayor and all councillors had been aware of the real position, I doubt that the Council would have voted 6-5 to allow the Airport proposals to go forward to an RMA hearing,” he says.

Cr Tristram says the Airport Coalition is calling on the KCDC Chief Executive and the Airport developers to take back the airport proposals while an inquiry is held into why elected councillors were not given full and correct documentation.

“If the Council does not take action quickly, it will bring itself into public disrepute and could possibly lay itself open to action in the High Court,” he says.

The Airport Coalition says a letter sent to the KCDC by the Director of the Civil Aviation Authority, Mr Russell Kilvington, is devastating in its implications.

It says Mr Kilvington’s letter proves that the CAA was never given full details of the Airport plans, or asked for an expert opinion on safety or any other grounds.

This means, the Coalition says, that a letter supplied from the former CAA Director, John Jones, was meaningless and misleading.

It led councillors to believe the CAA approved the project, when in fact it hadn’t even considered it – and. In particular, had not considered the serious safety implications.

On a second major point, the Coalition says claims by Mr Robinson that his proposals had full Iwi support have also been shown to be false.

At the time the Council met (on March 15), KCDC officers were unable to locate a letter from Iwi representatives withdrawing a Memorandum of Understanding.

Yet within three working days the KCDC gave the Observer an advertisement which says “Please note that the MOU between PAHL (Airport Owners) and Iwi (annexure 4) originally included in the plan change request has been removed at the request of the applicant.”

Cr Tristram says this point is critical as councillors taking their Treaty of Waitangi obligations seriously may have voted the other way if they’d realised that Iwi support had definitely been withdrawn.

“This should be part of the inquiry by the KCDC Chief Executive,” Cr Tristram says.

The third major concern raised by the Coalition centres on the Airport Authorities Amendment Bill, sponsored by local MP Darren Hughes.

In documentation presented to the Council, Mr Robinson claims he supports the Bill.

However, the Coalition says, it has just obtained Mr Robinson’s submission to the Select Committee considering the Bill --- and this shows that in fact he wants the Bill ‘gutted’.

The Coalition says Mr Robinson has asked for amendments which would limit the Government’s powers to “identified airport activities” and would not cover most of the airport land.

In fact, it says, the amendments suggested by Mr Robinson would negate the main purpose of the Bill by allowing commercial and industrial activity over the majority of the airport, without restriction.

The Coalition says it is evident that Kapiti Coaster District councillors have been seriously misled.

It adds: “The KCDC Chief Executive should now call in the developer’s proposals and institute an urgent inquiry.”

ENDS

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