(Wanaka, 18/02/2020) Five community
groups representing thousands of Wanaka and Upper Clutha
residents have described the Wanaka Airport consultation
process as “broken and not fit for purpose”. Consulting firm
MartinJenkins is conducting focus groups in Wanaka and
Queenstown this week, relating to impact reports they are
preparing for QLDC.
The Chair of Wanaka Stakeholders
Group, along with the chairs of community associations in
Hawea, Luggate, Albert Town, Mt Barker and Cardrona, have
made a joint statement calling out the consultation process
as “deficient” and “unacceptable”. Participants were given
only one weeks’ notice, with no detailed information being
provided in advance of the sessions and the consultation
framework unclear.
Jim Cowie, Chair of the Albertown
Community Association, speaking on behalf of the six groups,
expressed their collective disappointment. “It’s hard to
know where to begin – there are so many aspects of this
consultation process which are fraught with issues. This is
such an important issue for all of us.”
“There is no
Environmental assessment – this has been completely
overlooked,” he said. “This makes no sense at all –
particularly given QLDC’s declaration of a climate emergency
last year.”
Mr Cowie said that the six chairs, all of
whom attended the focus group session in Wanaka last night,
were “deeply disappointed” with what they experienced.
“There are numerous and fundamental concerns about these
sessions – including that participants had no advance
warning of the detailed scenarios they were asked to
evaluate, and insufficient information within the session to
make meaningful contributions.”
Cherilyn Walthew,
chair of the Hawea Community Association pointed out that
while community associations representing thousands of
residents got just one seat per association, individual
property development companies each got one seat, as did
other tourism and growth focussed businesses. “Some Wanaka
based groups were left out completely. The Makarora
Community were only included at the last minute – they
hadn’t received an invitation, and others were not even
considered.”
“We are also concerned that the grass
roots communities most affected by any change in the Upper
Clutha were only represented in one of the seven focus group
sessions. We think that this will result in unfair odds,
weighting and consideration when the final analysis is
done.”
Wanaka Stakeholders Group chair Michael Ross
noted “ahead of the focus groups, we wrote a very detailed
letter to MartinJenkins and the Council, outlining our nine
key concerns. It seems to have fallen on deaf ears – we
received a placating email back, but nothing has
changed.”
He added that the option most favoured by
the community, namely “no increase in flights into
Queenstown, and only turbo-props into Wanaka” was not even
put on the table at the focus group. The perception, he
said, is that “the subject matter, selection process and
groups are stacked and imbalanced and that the outcome is
predetermined.”
The chairs of the six groups made
their views known in the focus group, but are concerned that
their complaints will be disregarded as “minority
views”.
“This has not been a good week for local
democracy”, said Mr
Ross.
