Auckland councillor Mike Lee plans further bid to block private helipads
Photo:
RNZ / Cole Eastham-Farrelly
Auckland councillor Mike Lee is leading a new push to ban private helipads in residential areas of the city.
The Waitematā and Gulf councillor intends raising two notices of motion at the policy and planning committee meeting on 24 July.
"One is for the Hauraki Gulf Islands District Plan, which covers Waiheke and Great Barrier Island, essentially, where helipads have been a major problem with local people.
"The other one covers the western bays of Auckland and so that's the Auckland Unitary Plan."
"One notice of motion applies to the Auckland situation - the mainland situation - and the other applies to the Gulf Islands," he said.
The announcement comes days after billionaire entrepreneur Anna Mowbray and former-All Black husband Ali Williams were
given permission to build a helipad
at their $24 million waterfront home in Westmere.
The commissioners' decision released on Monday 30 June stated flights would be limited to no more than two per day and 10 per month.
According to Auckland Council, of 1397 written submissions made on the application, most - 1227, or 87 percent - opposed the helipad on Rawene Avenue, 108 were supportive, and 12 were neutral.
"This latest decision, according to the commissioner, Kit Littlejohn, says helipads are enabled in residential areas as a permitted activity and has gone so far, quite extraordinarily, to assert that helicopters are equivalent to cars and they're intrinsic to residential living, which is a pretty extreme argument," Lee said.
"I don't think most people would agree with that, but nonetheless, the unitary plan is not as clear on this matter as everyone had assumed until now and, therefore, the need for clarity is quite urgent really.
"Why should people be disturbed in their own homes and properties by people who are making an awful racket, and flying aircraft into the neighbourhood."
He believed many Aucklanders agreed with him and that helipads in residential areas created a large volume of complaints.
"It's not designed to be a ban on helicopters or helipads," Lee said. "It's private residential use that we're concerned about, because that's what causes all the complaints.
"When you think about it, landing an aircraft in a built-up area as a routine means of transport is just crazy and it's unacceptable.
"We have to tidy it up and give people certainty, that's even the Mowbrays - Ali Williams and Miss Mowbray - who spent three years and I guess a hell of a lot of money on this application.
"People like that need some certainty as well, because the way things are now, it's quite a mess and needs to be tidied up."
The Auckland councillor has previously attempted to ban private helipads in residential areas, but his motion in March last year lost 10-8.
"I have tried in the past, of course, and narrowly failed to get the majority of councillors and the mayor to vote for making helipads in residential areas a prohibited activity," Lee said.
"There's an election coming up and we don't have that much time in the current term of this council to do something about it, and I was determined to do something in this term of the council."
The Auckland councillor said he'd like the city to follow some Australian cities that have prohibited private helipads in residential areas, unless they have a Fly Neighbourly Agreement with local residents.
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero
,
a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
RNZ News
an hour ago
- RNZ News
Why NZ's first space unit was named after a WW2 squadron
Space and Defence Minister Judith Collins reestablishes No 62 Squadron as NZ's first space unit. Photo: NZDF / supplied The air force has reactivated the name of a World War 2 squadron - but this time, as the country's first space unit. No 62 Squadron operated key radars in the South Pacific during the war. But now it will help New Zealand better understand potential dangers in space such as intruders or eavesdroppers. Air Commodore Andy Scott told Morning Report people rely on space for many aspects of life, including banking, agriculture and air traffic control. "It's one of those emerging domains that we really need to be interested in what's going on there, and understand what threats - effectively, behaviors in space - could present to everything from air traffic control, banking, even the agriculture sector. "So it's a very important part of what we do to protect New Zealanders." The threats were not just from other countries but space itself, he explained, such as "solar flares that could impact the electricity grid". The squadron was based at RNZAF Base Auckland, Whenuapai. " It is a growing area, so at the moment it's a small unit," Scott said. "It's about 12 people to begin with, but we will be increasingly growing, working with industry, working with academia, and growing that capability, which, as we can see from our partners is areas that of course our allies are also in the process of growing as well." He said it would be expensive and "challenging" to get our own satellites, but "we'll do the analysis to see what we need there". At the moment, the squadron is working closely with US Space Force. "The core part of what we do is leading what's known as the Pacific cell. "So there's three cells, multinational virtual operations room if you like, that have one based around the Americas, one based in Europe, one based in the Pacific. "And so for our virtual team, it's between us, Australia, Japan and the Republic of Korea that helps monitor behaviors and we share it all widely amongst, I think at the moment it's around about 12 countries that are sharing that information." He said the name - resurrected from a WW2-era group - was significant. Air Commodore Andy Scott. Photo: NZDF / supplied "So, 62 Squadron actually was an early warning squadron. In the Second World War it was based up in the Solomon Islands using what at the time was cutting-edge radar technology to both warn allies and partners of incoming attacks and also to help control allied fighters. "This unit actually, it was disbanded at the end of the Second World War and it was actually quite a secretive unit, so it was a challenge to go through the archives to go and find a lot of information about it, but what we I do know is the New Zealanders that were involved there played such a crucial role. "And so we felt it fitting to go and resurrect that squadron, given the importance and the work that it does and how it translates to what we're doing now." The new unit was formally established on Friday last week . "Space is vital for modern life - we rely on space-based infrastructure for a range of critical services, from weather observation to financial transactions," Judith Collins, the minister for both defence and space, said. "This is an important signal that we're taking space security seriously." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
2 hours ago
- RNZ News
Thousands to benefit from FamilyBoost changes
politics national 43 minutes ago The Finance Minister says several thousand more families will benefit from the changes to FamilyBoost. Nicola Willis spoke to Ingrid Hipkiss.
RNZ News
2 hours ago
- RNZ News
Thousands to benefit from FamilyBoost changes to be announced today
Finance Minister Nicola Willis. Photo: RNZ / Mark Papalii The Finance Minister says several thousand more families will benefit from the changes to FamilyBoost. Nicola Willis is set to make an announcement on the government's FamilyBoost scheme on Monday morning. We'll be livestreaming the announcement at the top of this page from about 9am. Head of the announcement, Willis told Morning Report the changes inlcude increasing the amount of rebate families will get from the scheme and increasing the range of families who can access it, including higher income families who will be able to get a higher amount. "Overall, the amount of money we put into the sceheme is not on track to all be used so that gives us an opporuntity to look at how we can spread that cash further, ensure it's getting into people's pockets, into their bank accounts, and not staying with the government." She urged people who were eligible for Family Boost to put claims in. The Finance Minister] promised to review the scheme which provides rebates for early childhood education, after government figures showed just 249 families had consistently claimed the full amount - well short of the 21,000 families initially estimated. At present, to qualify for the full amount, families must be paying more than $300 a week in childcare costs, but also earning under $140,000 a year. Families earning up to $180,000 a year can get smaller amounts, while those earning above that cannot claim the rebate. More to come... Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
