Warnervale Airport. “There is a long history of the Warnervale Airport and attached is a “Warnervale Airport Brief History” (the references will be loaded in the near future). The key points are:
– Liability and not Viable – recommends sale of land“ quote from Feasibility Study (2013)
– “Not the best use of land “ council study (2013)
– Not supported by Newcastle Airport due to impact on catchment (Letter 2016);
Planning Minister announces Warnervale Airport Act to be retained (August 2017);
– Motion passed by CC Councillors to ceased all work on Airport (November 2017)
– Not Supported by Lake Macquarie Council, due to impact on residents (Letter 2018),
– Not compliant with CASA rules; (email 11/12/2018)
– Noise from flights will affect 45,000 residents
– No airport included in CC Regional Plan or CC Transport Plan.
The continued operation of the airport, is costing a lot of money and represents a substantial risk to council for no benefit;
– Cumulative operating costs of $2.4 million over the last 4 years;
– Cost of land purchased for an airport is nearly, $20 million;
– Capital costs for airport, fencing, earthworks, road works of $10 million;
– Holding costs of $1.5 million per annum in interest and loss of rate income;
– Consultants costs of $450,000.
All these costs are borne by council with no return to ratepayers. This wastage needs needs to be stopped. Risk to council include:
– Operation of the Airport is already in breach of Warnervale Airport Restrictions Act, with potential fines of up to $11,000 per movement. This equates to $1.4 million per day.
– Masterplan is in breach of the WAR Act which prohibits any proposal for an airport longer than 1200 metres.
– Airport is non-compliant with CASA Air Safety Guidelines.
The Central Coast is well serviced with major airports having 3 within one hour travelling:
– Kingsford Smith at Mascot (international and Domestic);
– Newcastle at Tea Gardens, one of the lowest cost airports in Australia (International and Domestic);
– New Badgerys Creek Airport – opening 2026 (international and Domestic).