Whangārei District Council general manager planning and development Dominic Kula talks about the new Onerahi airport rescue helicopter base. Photo / Susan Botting
Whangārei District Council general manager planning and development Dominic Kula talks about the new Onerahi airport rescue helicopter base. Photo / Susan Botting
Shifting from Kensington to Onerahi airport will mean big savings for the Northland Emergency Services Trust, a community meeting heard this week.
Northland Emergency Services Trust (NEST) chief executive Craig Gibbons said setting up a new base at Onerahi airport, rather than from scratch on an undeveloped piece of landelsewhere, would bring significant savings.
Gibbons said it would cost NEST more than $8 million to set up on a greenfield site. This compared with about $4m for Onerahi airport.
He said NEST could not afford $8m for a new base.
"We don't have $8 million. We have a lot of things in front of us to spend money on," Gibbons said.
About 1300 rescue helicopter flights will leave and take off from Onerahi airport annually, once the shift happens. The Whangārei District Council (WDC) lease on NEST's Kensington rescue helicopter base expires in May next year.
About 60 people turned out to a WDC public meeting at Onerahi airport on Monday night, where NEST faced a hostile crowd of almost exclusively opponents of the shift to Onerahi.
The meeting's airport shift opposition caused one pro- Onerahi airport move supporter and hospital nurse in the audience to leave early, with the parting words to the trust and council that she supported the shift.
Gibbons is chief executive of Northern Rescue Helicopter which operates NEST and the Auckland Regional Helicopter Trust (ARHT) based at Ardmore Airport.
He said there was nowhere else in Northland suitable for the new emergency rescue helicopter service base.
NEST had already outgrown its Kensington base with some staff already working off-site due to lack of room. There would soon be another 13 currently-St John-managed paramedics to be managed by NEST. That would bring NEST staff numbers to 65, including 18 helicopter pilots.
The Northland Emergency Rescue Helicopter base in Kensington.
Gibbons said NEST would be changing from its existing Sikorskys to new Italian helicopters. These cost $15m each.
The first new helicopter would likely be in the trust's Whangārei base next year. One benefit of changing to the Italian helicopters was that they were slightly less noisy than the Sikorskys.
NEST is next going to firm up its Onerahi airport shift planning and put together a more detailed wrap of its plans to present to WDC for approval.
Two Onerahi airport sites are currently being considered. One is the former Northland aviation clubrooms west of the main airport terminal, and the other is the former local fire service and airport control tower buildings east of the main airport terminal.
Gibbons said a site decision would be made in July.
He told the meeting he accepted noise was a major issue for Onerahi airport neighbours opposed to the rescue helicopter base shift. The trust had spent time looking at a range of other alternative sites and the Onerahi option was the only choice.
One meeting attendee said the existing helicopter noise from the airport was already so loud she had to wear earmuffs while doing the dishes.
Another said he would lose $1m from the value of his house with the rescue helicopter move.
"No matter where we go in the community, everyone will tell us we really want you, but we don't want you in our back yard'," Gibbons said.
"I feel for them, I really understand their plight," Gibbons said of Onerahi helicopter shift opponents.
Gibbons said NEST would be moving all its helicopter training from Onerahi when it shifted from Kensington. Training was currently done at the airport to share the noise load among communities. It was also done at other airfields, with noise complaints instantly following training visits to the various sites.
"We try to carefully share the (noise) impact," Gibbons said.
NEST has a suitable area within a forestry plantation that it does not own to use for helicopter training. Gibbons did not say where that was.
He said the trust had changed the scheduling of its staff's annual training rotations, which included night flying requirements so that it happened in winter. This meant night training could be completed earlier as darkness fell earlier.
NEST was in discussion with the new Health New Zealand and Māori Health Authority about not flying at night, where possible.
Gibbons said 70 per cent of NEST's work was transferring Northlanders under the care of Whangārei Hospital to Auckland. The rest was emergency pre-hospital work including rescues, accidents and health issues related.
The dissolution of the Northland District Health Board from July 1, as part of nationwide health sector change, would mean talking with new entities.
Whangārei Mayor Sheryl Mai addresses NEST chief executive Craig Gibbons (left) and chair Paul Ahlers at the meeting. Photo / Susan Botting
The trust had looked into the option of co-locating a helipad at the hospital, but that was not possible. NEST had been told a helipad there would be at least 20 years away. The hospital had the smallest helipad in New Zealand.
Mayor Sheryl Mai acknowledged the anger among those present.
