New council will decide Queenstown Airport future after legal advice leads to delays

Saturday, 14 September 2019

Wonky Donkey author and performer Craig Smith sings of his fears for the future of his hometown - Queenstown.

Authorities in Queenstown have put off making changes to rules around the town's airport after repeatedly failing to agree a strategy to deal with the impact of noise.

The airport's governing document has been rejected three times by the council its major shareholder, which has now decided to leave any amendments until after the local body elections next month.

Queenstown Lakes District Council chief executive Mike Theelen said the decision followed independent legal advice.

Queenstown Lakes District Council chief executive Mike Theelen said a decision to delay changes to the airport's governing document was based on legal advice.

The council owns 75 per cent of the shares in Queenstown Airport Corporation, a council-controlled organisation.

Residents have expressed concern over plans to allow more growth at Queenstown Airport .

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The only legal control the council has over the corporation is through the annual statement of intent (SOI).

The SOI was legally in place by June but the council indicated it wanted to make changes after pressure from members of the community objecting to the airport's plans to grow noise boundaries in Queenstown and allow commercial jet flights in Wanaka.

Since then it has not been able to agree on alterations and on August 26 resolved to call for the airport corporation to revise the SOI again and present it to the council's October meeting – the final meeting before the elections.

When Theelen released the legal advice on Friday he said the council's August decision signalled it wished to consider changes that could affect the corporation's direction.

Legal advice from Meredith Connell recommended such changes should only be considered outside the period immediately prior to the local body election.

It also said that more robust public engagement and information gathering was required.

'That process will take longer than the period of time left to the current council ahead of the 2019 October local body election.'

Theelen said the new council would be briefed early in its tenure.

Councillors agreed that leaving the decisions to the new council was the correct step to take, he said.