Finally Getting Serious!

On 3 May, the Planning Committee again discussed helicopters:

They passed the following resolutions:

Quiet Sky Waiheke noted a distinct change in the Council dialogue compared to previous meetings. There were significant contributions to the meeting from Local Councillor Pippa Coom, Committee Chair Chris Darby, and Mayor Phil Goff. We very much welcome that the issue is now being taken more seriously by Council officers and that Council intends to do more monitoring, to issue more advice, to work with the CAA, and to consider plan changes. We also welcome the interest shown by the Hon David Parker (Minister for the Environment), in better addressing the impacts of helicopters in the legislation that is being drafted to replace the RMA, and the observations provided to him by the Mayor and Cr Darby (watch the video from 39 minutes in:

The Waiheke Local Board chair has also commented thus as part of an update to the Local Board:

Clearly, the problems associated with so many helipads and helicopter flights are now more widely understood and are getting serious consideration at many levels.