Helicopter flights from New Brighton

Press, 11 September 1985, Page 16

Helicopter flights from New Brighton

Sir, — It is with alarm that I read of the helicopter operators’ lack of concern for residents who last year fought to get helicopter flights shifted from the New Brighton beach to the airport where they should have been in the first place. If the Christchurch City Council has any regard for the ratepayers it purports to represent it should reject immediately any application for running further noisy helicopter operations in our residential area; and further should insist on the New Brighton helipad being dismantled and the area restored to the recreational area it once was. - Yours etc.,B. M. CHURCH. September 5, 1985.

Sir,—Garden City Helicopters, Ltd, now looks for alternative loopholes in which to regain foreshore access. How is our council to have any credibility, when a decision it made to stop operations from New Brighton is being undermined by the chairman of that

committee? Could Cr Burn be passing the buck, two years later when the sand has settled? Constantly beating rotor blades on week-ends and public holidays only, hardly constitutes a holiday at all. As rescue bases, our efficient and dedicated surf life-saving clubs provide us with an excellent com-munity-orientated service, not to be confused with businessmen and others, using the rescue aspect as a lever back to the foreshore.— Yours, etc., C. D. Le CREN. September 5, 1985.