More than about a helipad
Multimillionaire Briscoes’ boss Rod Duke has been accused of turning a public beach into his personal playground after moving into Auckland’s most expensive suburb of Herne Bay.
Duke and wife Patricia have shifted from Remuera to a clifftop property overlooking the Waitemata Harbour.
At Sentinel Rd beach, in front of their new home, is a controversial boat shed that Duke wants to use as a helicopter pad to allow him to get to out-of-town golf courses more quickly.
Following a court battle, Duke has rebuilt the 1930s boat shed on the beach, had it declared legal and is pressing ahead with a James Bondstyle helicopter pad.
Don Mathieson, co-chairman of the Herne Bay Residents’ Association, is bewildered by Duke’s approach to his neighbours and people who use the inner-city public beach.
“The thought of a helicopter coming in and the whole beach becoming his private playground isn’t very considerate of him,” he said.
Mathieson said the association was not waging an anti-Duke campaign, but a Save Sentinel Beach push against the use of helicopters.
Local residents, he said, were already fed up with the sound of helicopters from three other helipads in Herne Bay, where the average house price is $2.3 million.
Robyn Bennett, who lives in a clifftop apartment about 100m from the Duke boat shed, said having helicopters coming and going from Herne Bay was ghastly and made her agitated.
She said Duke was going further because he wanted to turn a boat shed the public had generously allowed for boats into a helipad, saying the noise would be horrendous and sand would fly everywhere.
“To me it’s outrageous he would do that in a public space. This is not an emergency. He is not helping anybody but himself,” she said.
Another nearby resident, retired businessman Warren MacKenzie, said up to 300 people a day used the beach in summer.
He feared it would only take a beach towel or umbrella being sucked into the rotor blades of a helicopter to cause an accident “worse than Pike River”.
“I used to admire the guy [Duke] but I think what he is doing is very selfish and dangerous,” MacKenzie said.
Duke politely declined any comment until the matter has cleared the courts. His lawyer, Richard Brabant, said the reconstruction of the boat shed and helicopter landings were separate issues. Brabant said a certificate of compliance and existing use rights had been issued for the boat shed and two options were being considered to apply for helicopter landings that would require a resource consent to modify the roof structure.
The options are to amend the original resource consent for up to three flights per week that the High Court cancelled in December last year, or make a fresh application. Either option would be publicly notified.
Whatever option Duke opts for, he faces new guidelines drawn up by Auckland Council.
Growing concern over the use of the private use of helicopters in residential areas — council has granted consent for two dozen private helicopter pads in the past six years — prompted council planning committee chairman Chris Darby to query the rules in the Unitary Plan.
To his surprise he found a possible weakening of the rules with a lot of attention given to the helicopter landing pad part of an application and acoustics but not enough to landings and take-offs.
Darby also found in residential zones helicopter landings and takeoffs are considered a “noncomplying” activity, which trigger a wide range of assessments, including privacy and recreational amenity. Council planners have been made aware of these issues and given new guidelines for processing consents for the private use of helicopters.
Darby said he could not comment on the Duke case but said the council was a lot more aware now of the need to thoroughly assess the landing and take-off of helicopters and not just the helipad.
To me it’s outrageous he would do that in a public space. This is not an emergency. He is not helping anybody but himself. Robyn Bennett