The news that the Paraparaumu airport will not be conducting Air New Zealand services comes as no surprise to the Paraparaumu airport Coalition (PAC).
Spokesman Nick Fisher said, “Ever since Mr Robinson announced his intention to provide an Air New Zealand service we pointed out that this would be highly unlikely. Unfortunately he was able to dupe the Council into giving him consent to cut the airport in half and reduce safety by removing the second runway. Mr Robinson repeated this in the environment court, where he insisted that his big box development was essential to pay for the improvements required to have an Air NZ service.
“PAC consistently pointed out that this was not true, and now we have been proven correct. Unfortunately too late to save us from losing the runway.
“The only building so far proposed to grace Mr Robinson’s development is a huge and ugly Mega Mitre 10, and even Mr Robinson has expressed disappointment with its design, said Mr Fisher.
“Paraparaumu Airport Ltd convinced the Environment Court that it would have control over the design and aesthetics of the buildings in the airport subdivision. Yet now we find that again we were correct to doubt these assurances.”
The Airport Coalition say Mr Robinson’s company also convinced the Court that as his big box development was necessary, it formed part of the airport and therefore the land was not surplus and should not be offered back to the descendants of the original owners.
“Now that his promises have been exposed to be hollow, I wonder if he will have the moral fibre to admit the land is now surplus and make the offer back to those who were forced to sell the land under the public works act?”
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