Armidale Dumaresq Council’s latest media release (21 October) shows that in 2010, ADC made $300,000 profit from airport operations on top of a reserve of $2.4 million, that is, a present total of $2.7 million. The money will be used to pay for $1 million for lighting (location not mentioned) and to help repay $4.5 million for undisclosed “development” projects by introducing parking fees at Armidale airport; ADC says the decision to introduce parking fees grew from “complaints” about a shortage of car spaces at the airport. The Armidale Independent of October 26 (p.3) reports that pay-for- parking will raise up to $250,000 each year. Moreover, there are plans to build a covered shelter for 103 parking spaces at the airport.
Security patrols. Lighting. Paved surfaces. Boom gates. A Big City Airport Parking Hub.
Questions!
As Armidale is not a big city, how can ADC pay to maintain such a “New Age” airport without immediately helping themselves to our rates money? Have there been security problems at the open parking areas of the airport, say, in the last ten years? If parking-security is not a problem, why build a covered area for cars? How much will it cost us annually to keep the airport infrastructure in perfect condition? And — not least — how much will we be forced to pay for ADC’s named brass plates placed at strategic spots around our airport?
Dr Paul Fidlon,
Armidale
