{"id":323632,"date":"2026-03-11T05:49:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T05:49:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/323632\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T05:49:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T05:49:08","slug":"whangarei-airport-clocks-up-100-plus-noise-complaints-as-rescue-chopper-disturbs-sleep","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/323632\/","title":{"rendered":"Whang\u0101rei airport clocks up 100-plus noise complaints as rescue chopper disturbs sleep"},"content":{"rendered":"

The inaugural report was presented to Whang\u0101rei District Council<\/a> (WDC)\u2019s February 26 noise committee meeting.<\/p>\n

WDC manager property John Burt said 202 individual noise events had been complained about.<\/p>\n

Around 65.5% of the noise complaints were about night-time helicopter operations disturbing sleep.<\/p>\n

Complaints had come from a broad geographic spread around the airport, including 53 from a single individual.<\/p>\n

Burt said all complaints where a specific flight could be identified had been investigated by airport management and NRHL.<\/p>\n

He said there had been no regulatory breaches or non-compliance with NRHL\u2019s fly neighbourly procedures or the council\u2019s District Plan rules.<\/p>\n

\u201cCommunity concerns relate primarily to night-time noise, general disturbance, operational procedures and perceived fairness,\u201d Burt said in a noise committee update in the meeting\u2019s agenda.<\/p>\n

He said follow-up noise reduction options had been identified at the airport after the complaints.<\/p>\n

Potential improvements included shutting down rather than idling helicopters during night-time refuelling, reduced hovering while taxiing to takeoff, and adjustments to the lift-off location of eastbound departures.<\/p>\n

WDC staff and NRHL planned to implement a trial with the suggested modifications.<\/p>\n

Onerahi airport noise watchdog group ECHO (environment, community, health, Onerahi) member Carole Doherty said the rescue helicopter service was a plus for Northland.<\/p>\n

But people living around the airport who were affected by the extra helicopter noise were paying the health price.<\/p>\n

She said the complaints mattered, even if they had been shown not to breach noise requirements.<\/p>\n

Doherty said one resident had been forced to take leave from work to get some sleep, after being woken when helicopters took off and landed overnight.<\/p>\n

Council general manager planning and developer Dominic Kula did not specifically comment on the resident\u2019s situation Doherty referenced.<\/p>\n

He acknowledged that airport noise, particularly at night, could be challenging for nearby residents.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the same time, the rescue helicopter service provides an essential, life-saving function for the wider Northland region.<\/p>\n

\u201cCouncil\u2019s approach has been to acknowledge both realities, establishing practical ways to mitigate noise and processes to consider complaints.\u201d<\/p>\n

The committee was one way of doing this. It combined WDC politicians, airport operators and community members with direct links to Onerahi.<\/p>\n

\u201cCouncil acknowledges that views within the community differ, and that there is no single solution that will satisfy everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regular formal noise complaints reporting will now be part of the council\u2019s airport noise management committee meetings.<\/p>\n

Kula said the date for the next meeting had not been set but it would be held no later than the end of August.<\/p>\n

NRHL chief executive Ian MacPherson said he was confident his organisation complied with the airport\u2019s latest noise rules.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are fully compliant, so we are legally operating from Whang\u0101rei airport,\u201d MacPherson said.<\/p>\n

The committee\u2019s noise complaints report tabling came two days after WDC politicians unanimously voted to extend NRHL\u2019s Kensington sports ground ease \u2013 for up to three years.<\/p>\n

NRHL\u2019s emergency helicopter flights shifted to the airport in July, but its helicopter maintenance remained at the Kensington Park site, which it leases from WDC.<\/p>\n

Training flights are still carried out away from Onerahi airport.<\/p>\n

The politicians\u2019 unanimous decision was made despite warnings in a staff report to council that doing so risked legal challenge via a High Court judicial review application and complaints to the Ombudsman.<\/p>\n

Burt said the Kensington community had been expecting NRHL to vacate the Kensington site by June.<\/p>\n

\u25a0 LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The inaugural report was presented to Whang\u0101rei District Council (WDC)\u2019s February 26 noise committee meeting. WDC manager property…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":323633,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[174668,2681,665,806,118499,45663,30701,174669,16132,305,42,47065,5832,4188,1362,32033,43,35921,174670,8527,530,2552,7811,2863,40,38,41,39,810,1869],"class_list":["post-323632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-100plus","tag-airport","tag-around","tag-as","tag-chopper","tag-clocks","tag-complaints","tag-disturbs","tag-formal","tag-have","tag-headlines","tag-helicopter","tag-july","tag-living","tag-made","tag-moved","tag-news","tag-noise","tag-onerahi","tag-rescue","tag-residents","tag-service","tag-since","tag-sleep","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-up","tag-whangrei"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323632"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323632\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/323633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}