Residents living around Whangārei airport have made 119 formal noise complaints since the rescue helicopter service moved to Onerahi in July.
By Susan Botting for Local Democracy Reporting
The complaints to Whangārei District Council referenced more than 200 individual noise events between August 11 and January 31.
Northern Rescue Helicopters Limited moved the major part of its flight operation from Kensington to Whangārei airport at Onerahi in July.
The complaints came to light in the first airport helicopter noise complaints report to the the council’s airport noise committee since the move.
Whangārei District Council property manager John Burt said 202 individual noise events had been complained about.
Around 65.5% of the noise complaints were about night-time helicopter operations disturbing sleep.
Complaints had come from a broad geographic spread around the airport, including 53 from one individual.
Burt said all complaints where a specific flight could be identified had been investigated by airport management and Northern Rescue Helicopters.
He said there had been no regulatory breaches or non-compliance with Northern Rescue Helicopters’s fly neighbourly procedures or the council’s district plan rules.
“Community concerns relate primarily to night-time nose, general disturbance, operational procedures and perceived fairness,” Burt said in a noise committee update in the meeting’s agenda.
He said follow-up noise reduction options had been identified at the airport in the wake of the complaints.
Potential improvements included shutting down rather than idling helicopters during night-time refueling, reduced hovering whilst taxiing to takeoff, and adjustments to the lift-off location of eastbound departures.
Whangārei District Council staff and Northern Rescue Helicopters planned a trial with the suggested modifications.
Onerahi airport noise watchdog group ECHO (environment, community, health, Onerahi) member Carole Doherty said the rescue helicopter service was a plus for Northland.
But people living around the airport who were affected by the extra helicopter noise were paying the health price.
She said the complaints mattered, even if noise requirements hadn't been breached.
Doherty said one resident had been forced to take leave from work to get some sleep, after being woken when helicopters took off and landed overnight.
Council general manager planning and developer Dominic Kula did not specifically comment on the resident’s situation but acknowledged that airport noise, particularly at night could be challenging for nearby residents.
“At the same time, the rescue helicopter service provides an essential, life-saving function for the wider Northland region.
“Council’s approach has been to acknowledge both realities establishing practical ways to mitigate noise and processes to consider complaints.”
The committee was one way of doing this. It combined Whangārei District Council politicians, airport operators and community members with direct links to Onerahi.
“[The] council acknowledges that views within the community differ, and that there is no single solution that will satisfy everyone."
Regular formal noise complaints reporting will now be part of the council’s airport noise management committee meetings.
Kula said the date for the next meeting had not been set but it would be held no later than the end of August.
Northern Rescue Helicopters CEO Ian MacPherson said he was confident his organisation complied with the airport’s latest noise rules.
“We are fully compliant, so we are legally operating from Whangārei airport,” MacPherson said.
The committee’s noise complaints report tabling came two days after Whangārei District Council politicians unanimously voted to extend NRHL’s Kensington sports ground ease – for up to three years.
Northern Rescue Helicopters' emergency flights shifted to the airport in July, but its helicopter maintenance remained at the Kensington Park site which it leased from the Whangārei District Council.
Training flights were still carried out away from Onerahi airport.
The politicians’ unanimous decision was made in spite of warnings in a staff report to council that doing so risked legal challenge via a High Court judicial review application and complaints to the Ombudsman.
Burt said the Kensington community had been expecting Northern Rescue Helicopters to vacate the Kensington site by June.
– LDR is local-body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
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