Residents out to silence choppers

Arthurs Pt residents are calling on Queenstown Lakes District Council to decline a tourist operator's resource consent application to alter its helicopter activity on a neighbourhood helipad and to declare the original consent invalid.

However, Totally Tourism Ltd said it wanted to change the type of flight it was permitted so it could manage its flight paths and lessen effects on the township.

The Arthurs Pt Community Association met at the Arthurs Pt Tavern last night to protest against the application.

Last April, Totally Tourism sought approval to fly sightseeing, rafting and combo trip clients from the helipad at 160 Arthurs Pt Rd, between 9am and 6pm each day, and within a noise limit of 50 decibels per landing.

Arthurs Pt landowner Ian Mill told the Otago Daily Times yesterday the original resource consent granted in 1993, to Dane's Shotover Rafts Ltd, was limited to the use of helicopters for the sole purpose of transporting rafting clients on to the Shotover River when Skippers Rd was closed during winter.

"Totally Tourism, the consent applicant today, is seeking wider use of the helipad to include sight-seeing and combo trip clients, so that it's now fundamentally different to the purpose the application was granted," Mr Mill said.

"Arthurs Pt is a significantly different residential area to what it was in 1993 when they granted restricted use.

At the time, what was then called the Planning Tribunal, now the Environment Court, granted use on the basis that it wasn't used as a heliport in a residential area.

"Quite clearly, the level of activity is in the nature of a heliport, not a helipad."

Mr Mill said he did not object to the pad being used as originally granted.

But the level of activity conducted by Totally Tourism over the years had been "substantially more" than was permitted, he said.

"They have proven they are incapable of complying with the noise limits imposed in the original consent.

The daily noise limit was exceeded on 151 days between January 1, 2006, and February 28, 2007.

"In the whole 14-month period, compliance with the required weekly average noise limit was achieved only for the period May 25 to June 17, 2006, the quietest time of the year."

Mr Mill said there was no place for a commercial helipad so close to a significant residential area and that all such activities should be operated from Queenstown Airport.

Totally Tourism managing director Mark Quickfall said the company was not applying to increase the number of helicopter landings, but to continue as it had done for 14 years.

The company would not be operating at present if the consent was not valid, he said.

"Over the summer, we've operated rafting flights from the Arthurs Pt helipad to the Shotover River.

"We've taken a longer route to avoid the residential areas of Arthurs Pt.

"However, in winter months this will not be possible because the put-in point for rafting is further down the Shotover River and requires a direct flight from the Arthurs Pt helipad and up the Shotover Gorge to reach the put-in point."

Mr Quickfall said the original report on sound impacts miscalculated the distance between the nearest residence and the helipad.

The miscalculation had only recently come to light with the council and the operator, which was why testing had taken place, he said.

Totally Tourism took advice from an acoustic expert and built a sound barrier between the pad and nearest property last year.

Further testing found it was meeting council requirements, he said.

"We're doing the same number of flights to meet those standards. We could do 12 flights a day, I think we're averaging four flights a day."

Mr Quickfall, who was attending TRENZ in Rotorua this week, said he had not been advised of last night's meeting but was back in Queenstown on Friday when he would be available to discuss the application with residents.

The closing date for submissions is June 5 with and public hearings to follow.

 

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