More than a hundred Tarras residents and supporters crammed into the Tarras Community Hall on Wednesday evening (July 29) to hear from the man leading Christchurch International Airport’s (CIAL) plans to develop an international airport in the area.

“It’s certainly the biggest thing that Tarras has ever confronted, and let’s hope we do it in a civil way and let the facts speak for themselves,” long term resident Robbie Gibson told the meeting, which was organised by a working party of Maori Point Road residents and chaired by retired Environment Court judge Shonagh Kenderdine.

CIAL project manager Michael Singleton responded to questions from the floor and listened to representatives from a range of Tarras interest groups.

He fielded accusations that the airport should have had a conversation with the Tarras community before purchasing $45M of farm land; that property owners now faced years of uncertainty about what would happen with their land; that an airport would destroy biodiversity in the area as well as the community’s way of life; and that CIAL had acted without consulting stakeholders.

Michael Singleton PHOTO: Supplied

Michael’s statement that the airport had “a no surprises policy” was met with laughter, before he clarified that policy applied to the CIAL’s shareholders.

Michael apologised to the Central Otago District Council (mayor Tim Cadogan was present) for the council not hearing about the airport’s plans until last week. “We’ve made some commitments to be very, very open with them,” he added.

However Michael was unapologetic about the undercover way CIAL had purchased land, saying “it was not nefarious”.

He said CIAL was “here to start a conversation”, and that if the project did not stack up, the airport would be left with 750ha of farmland in the Tarras region.

“When we say long term… we’re thinking 50 years,” Michael said. “We don’t want to get things in the wrong place or lose the licence to operate. This is part of a long term strategy around the aviation future of the South Island.”

Barbara Armstrong makes a point at Wednesday’s meeting. PHOTO: Wanaka App

In answer to a question about timelines, he indicated that within 12 months the CIAL would hope to have identified “some packages of work, and some ideas of layout”.

“When you do big infrastructure projects sometimes those closest to it don’t always share the benefits, and feel they carry the burden,” he said.  

Residents let him know how opposed they were to a potential airport.

Peter Jolly quoted from the Australian movie The Castle: “If you think this is going to be a walk in the park, it ain’t.”

Maori Point Road resident Dr Marilyn Duxson said: “I don’t think there’s anything, Michael, that you could say that would make me accept that this is the right thing to do for our valley.”

Michael indicated that consultation would continue, and would include landowners, local communities, national and regional bodies, and iwi.