Commuting pilots fight for rights

Holiday home owners on Coromandel Peninsula are complaining about noise and dust from neighbours' helicopters - so the chopper owners are off to court.

Two wealthy businessmen are challenging the Thames Coromandel District Council's district plan, which says using a helicopter in a residential area requires resource consent.

Simpsons Beach homeowner Keith Sinclair, director of Heli Cam Aviation Ltd, has a sprawling home at the small bay north of Whitianga with enough land to use as a helipad.

The machines saved time and driving stress, he said.

"My lawyer has advised me we will win. The plan the council is using to stop me is not legally correct."

Joining him in an appeal to the Environment Court for the right to fly is Russell Pemberton, a director of several construction companies, who had been commuting to his Little Bay home on the far northeastern coast of the Peninsula for nine years without fuss.

But when a vacant section was built on and he extended his deck as a helipad, at least one neighbour complained. The council issued an abatement order - a temporary ban - which Mr Pemberton immediately appealed. Judge Richard Bollard granted him an interim order allowing two landings and take-offs a month until case is heard in October.

If the chopper owners win, other councils, such as Queenstown Lakes, could find their plans under scrutiny, but if the ruling goes the other way, some of the country's richest individuals might find themselves filling out consent forms.

Developer and Rich Lister Leigh Hopper, who regularly commutes in his Squirrel to his Whitianga Waterways home, said the council was poking its nose in where it didn't belong.

"Operating a helicopter is all covered by the Civil Aviation Authority. The council doesn't know what it's talking about," he said.

"The only issue that should concern them is noise, but that lasts a matter of seconds, less than someone mowing their lawn."

He did not have resource consent but believed he had "existing use" rights because he had been flying for more than 20 years.

Council spokesman Peter Hazael said some Simpsons Beach residents were "fairly anti", with 27 wanting to speak at a scheduled public hearing which was adjourned when the pilots decided to head for court.

One Simpsons Beach homeowner, who did not want to be named, said Whitianga airport was "10 minutes' away" and Mr Sinclair should use it.

Mr Sinclair said he was concerned about vandalism and liked being able to land next to his house.

"The neighbours on the boundary don't mind. Some of the people complaining live as far away as Hahei."

Mr Hazael said the council had never issued a resource consent for flying a helicopter in a residential area, though the provision had been there since 1997.

"We've never had any complaints before," he said.