Ex-All Black Ali Williams and Anna Mowbray’s Westmere helicopter pad application on hold for ecological assessments

Ali Williams and Anna Mowbray are facing delays in getting a helipad approved for their new home.

An application for a helicopter pad at a $26 million Westmere waterfront home is on hold while bird studies are completed, an Auckland Council official says.

Ex-All Black Ali Williams and businesswoman Anna Mowbray of the billionaire family who founded Zuru applied for the helipad through planners Mt Hobson Group for their under-construction Rawene Ave house in 2021.

But a council spokesperson said the application is on hold for a comprehensive ecological assessment.

Mowbray was approached for comment. She has said previously she does not wish to talk about the matter.

In 2020, it was reported the couple bought the Westmere house previously owned by film director Andrew Adamson, and demolished the 12-year-old home.

Neighbours including Grace Mirams and Leni Ma’ia’i expressed concern about helicopters and complained their quiet enjoyment was interrupted by the house demolition.

Trucks turning and backing, noise, vibrations and parts of their street being blocked during work caused stress and sleeplessness, they said.

In March 2022, the council called for more information, raising ecological, acoustic and general issues. A senior planner asked Mt Hobson Group’s Mark Benjamin to say a lot more including how long a helicopter would take to get from the ground to 150m, how Coxs Bay recreational users would be affected and a plan showing the proposed helipad location.

So the couple hasn’t been able to advance their application to the consent stage since making it around late 2021.

Jeanette Budgett, an architect and senior Te Pūkenga Unitec lecturer, said this week a new group sparked by that Westmere application, Quiet Sky Waitematā, sought petition signatures against choppers.

Ali Williams and Anna Mowbray during the demolition of their property.

“Helicopters might be used for commuting and personal travel around the city when that’s unnecessary. The impact is out of proportion to the personal convenience in our view,” she said.

The ecological assessment might have been required after her lobby group raised concerns about a helicopter’s effect on bird life at the headland site.

“There’s a significant bird roost of oystercatchers and other species there and of a number of birds who forage all around the point like the NZ dotterel and banded dotterels on Coxs Bay and on the Rawene [Ave] waterfront.”

The lobby group says: “We believe that private helicopters are incompatible with residential areas and with a low-carbon future for Auckland. Private helicopters should be banned in all residential areas of Waitematā.”

Choppers for private transport were not adequately anticipated or addressed by the Auckland Unitary Plan, the group says.

But it does support choppers for search and rescue and police use. Budgett said: “We’re not unreasonable. We recognise the use of helicopters in, for example, tourism and farming operations. They have their place.”

Cox's Bay Park in Westmere attracts walkers and families with its expanse of grass, playgrounds and tennis courts. Photo / Janna Dixon

The group says private helicopters for personal use directly contradicted Auckland city’s climate plan, which urged people to change transport modes for a more sustainable city.

Impacts on neighbours such as rotor wash and elevated noise levels worried the group. The environmental impacts on coastal birds and public space at beaches and on the foreshore were considerable and non-reversible, it said.

Once granted, helicopter activity will permanently destroy peaceful skies and biodiverse habitats, the group said.

It has called on the council to act.

Budgett wrote to the council’s resource consents team in 2021, saying Coxs Bay’s indented form meant that everyone who lived around there and used it had a clear view of the headland and the applicant’s site.

Piper Pt was a prominent landmark, clearly visible from Coxs Bay Reserve, Westend Rd, the northern end of Garnet Rd and from properties on the southern end of Marine Parade and Herne Bay.

“The helipad is proposed for the highly visible northern end of the headland. We emphasise this prominence because any helicopter take-off and landings will be seen and heard by immediate neighbours, residents in Westmere, Coxs Bay and neighbouring Herne Bay,” Budgett said in her letter.

Coxs Bay, Westmere. Photo / Alex Burton

Hundreds, if not thousands of park users, kayakers, paddleboarders, coastal walkers, owners of small boats, mooring holders, commuter traffic on Westend Rd and scout hall and kayak club users would be affected.

“The public safety of people who use the bay for recreation is put at risk from downwash rotor action on the low elevation headland - helipad approximately 7m above the beach, less when the tide is in. This high number of affected persons justifies public notification of this proposal,” she wrote.

An acoustic report by Hegley Acoustic Consultants had been submitted with the application.

But that did not consider noise impacts in the harbour context of the site, the watery nature of which has implications for noise behaviour, she complained.

Activities such as fireworks on the beach can be significantly amplified by water and the amphitheatre form of Coxs Bay. The acoustic report does not fully address the impact of sound carrying across the bay, Budgett said.

When the application was lodged, a written submission from Treffery Barnett, a biologist of Bioresearches, said although the point appeared to be a well-used high-tide roost, more than 20 structures less than 2km to the east would provide safe roosting areas.

Reports by Hegley Acoustic Consultants and Heletranz general manager Gemma Parton assessed noise levels.

“We have reviewed the proposed helipad location and consider that it is suitable for use by the proposed aircraft,” Parton said in a document submitted to the council. If a pilot determined the site to be unsuitable or compromised for landing, they would use their skills to determine the safest course of action, she said. That would include options outlined by pilot Fogden in his report, Parton noted.

Planners Mt Hobson said the effects of flights from the property on the bird roost were assessed as high but spasmodic - only when the flights coincided with high tide and when the roost was being used by the birds.

* Anne Gibson has been the Herald’s property editor for 23 years, having won many awards, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.