Part two of survey starts

SUSTAINABLE Tarras has begun round two of its community survey of residents’ opinions about the proposed Tarras Airport.

The group’s chairman, Chris Goddard, said 300 households living under the proposed airport flight path would be sampled in round two.

The New Zealand Post database showed there were about 900 households in this area and the 300 households had been randomly selected from Northburn, Mt Pisa, Queensberry, Luggate and Hawea Flat.

Some Tarras households had also been added to the sample to cover households that had been just outside the scope of the first survey round, Mr Gaddard said.

The first round of surveys went to 180 Tarras households within a 10km radius of the proposed runway alignments.

The first round was conducted like a census as the association attempted to reach every household in the 10km area, while the second round was of a wider area and was intended to be a sample, he said.

Each household was being given the chance to provide two replies.

When the two rounds were added together, about 2000 people would have been given an opportunity to respond to the association’s survey.

Writing on the Otago Daily Times Facebook page, Queenstown resident Cath Gilmour questioned the ‘‘census style survey’’ (round one) and how Mr Goddard had reportedly arrived at a 2000 sample size around the airport.

Mr Goddard said the survey had been designed by a Sydney IT specialist, it was credible and people could be confident about the results.

He acknowledged not all postal surveys got high response rates.

Round one achieved 103 individual responses (28% of the possible response), with 83% of those who did respond recording they were either against or strongly against the proposed airport.

Mr Goddard said he was pleased with the response rate to round one.

‘‘Postal surveys get 5% to 30% response rates. The interest from the first survey should help the response rate [for round two].

‘‘We are curious what the community is feeling and recognise all viewpoints are equally important.

‘‘Knowing what people see as benefits or see as key concerns will help us ask the most relevant questions to the Christchurch Airport team and drive an informed conversation within the community,’’ Mr Goddard said.

The airport has been proposed by Christchurch International Airport Ltd. It is doing feasibility studies and expects to decide whether to apply for resource consents in 2023.