INTRA STATE AIRPORT FOR CENTRAL COAST?
Probe by Steering Committee
The Gosford-Wyong Steering Committee and the Australian Department of Civil Aviation are investigating the siting of an intra-State airport for the Central Coast.
It should be based on the operations of Sydney’s Bankstown Airport, the President of the committee, Cr. Malcolm Chalmers, told the “Express” yesterday.
He said that details of the proposal would be announced by the end of the year when the Gosford-Wyong Urban Structure Plan is revealed to the public.
The committee, which has been in touch with the Department of Civil Aviation, dismissed some recent press reports that Sydney’s second major airport may be sited at Somersby as “entirely unofficial and presumably originating in the Sydney Press”.
(The “Express” has not repeated the speculative reports that originated in a Sydney morning daily.)
Committee checks on local airport
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Cr. Chalmers said that at the moment there were two small airfields in Wyong Shire but it was not known what life they had.
He said it was preferable to have a DCA–council operated airport for a comprehensive intra-State and night charter service which is not available on the Central Coast at the moment.
The committee, following a request for a report from Cr. Chalmers, considered the question of public participation and communication in forming the Urban Structure Plan.
It agreed that the public should be given the fullest explanation of the nature and purposes of the Structure Plan when it was released later this year.
“The committee also decided to continue to issue Press statements and resolved to publish alternate structure plans before the final adoption of the plan for the region.
“Details of the proposed publication and exhibition will be issued at a later date,” Cr. Chalmers said.
At the Gosford-Wyong Steering Committee’s next meeting in April, it will consider a report from a technical sub-committee on sites for a tertiary education centre in the shires of either Gosford or Wyong.
Cr. Chalmers said that there are three or four sites for a college of advanced education apart from Ourimbah.
Airport: International… or Regional?
The siting of a second international airport at Warnervale could have “everything going for it,” the president of the Wyong Chamber of Commerce, Mr Roger Goodridge, said yesterday.
Mr Goodridge was rather guarded in his comments about the likelihood of the airport being established at Warnervale.
(The president of the Newcastle Chamber of Commerce, Mr Peter Evans, has openly advocated that the second international airport for Sydney be located at Warnervale.)
When contacted for comment, Mr Goodridge said he was in favour of progress.
But exhaustive studies would be needed to determine if Warnervale was “right” for such a large airport, he said.
There was no doubting that Sydney needed a new airport in the short term and the longer it was delayed the more dangerous the existing Mascot airport would become, he said.
And even if a decision was made tomorrow about the new airport it would take a considerable period before being ready for operation, Mr Goodridge said.
One hurdle, however, for the airport’s siting at Warnervale could be the State Coal Authority.
Mr Goodridge said the council was presently engaged in discussions with the State Government about coal mining in certain parts of the shire.
If fully extractive mining was allowed it could curb development in some areas.
A State Government report released this week sheds more light on the development of an airport at Warnervale.
The report, Economic Growth on the Central Coast, has been issued by the Minister for Planning and Environment, Mr Terry Sheahan.
It looks at a variety of the area’s likely growth patterns before the turn of the century.
Specifically, in referring to an airport at Warnervale, it hints at a regional commuter-type airport rather than an international one.
It says that finance for a regional airport at Warnervale is likely to be available from the Government for small, successive staged development.
“The airport offers potential for growth of light aircraft and general aviation, which could take some of the pressure off Bankstown and Sydney, promote service industries and tourism, and provide facilities for executive air transport for decentralising industries,” the report says.
“Government assistance in the development of the airport would provide a major opportunity to increase the employment potential of the Central Coast,” the report said.
It said the lack of an airport at present was a disadvantage to the Central Coast region in terms of its attractiveness for certain types of industry which require excellent inter-urban travel facilities for key personnel.
Mr Sheahan said that the report provided useful information and analysis of data which should be generally available to the community.
