A large scale evaluation of the future of Albury airport, which will cost ratepayers $150,000, has been approved.
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Albury Council, at its first meeting for the year on February 12, unanimously backed the airport aviation strategy, which will involve the hiring of a consultant to take public feedback.
The blueprint will canvass the possibility of the airport becoming a permanent hub for NSW and Victorian emergency services. the needs of airlines and passengers and how surrounding land can be protected from development which may interfere with airspace.
It will unfold across three phases, following the awarding of a tender expected in June 2024.
The first stage will focus on background analysis, with the second to take input via surveys, interviews and workshops before the final phase which will see a revised aviation strategy circulated.
The council is then expected to endorse a draft plan from February to March 2025, before the final version is adopted in April of that year.
Councillor Alice Glachan, a member of the council's airport management committee, said the proposed aviation approach had been worked up with an advisory group established last year.
"The plan as scoped out in this document has been developed with the new airport advisory committee members, many of whom work at significant airports in capital cities, so the input has been extremely valuable," Cr Glachan said.
Councillor Ashley Edwards, following concern from the public, asked the council's business and lifestyle leader Ambrose Glass if noise would be addressed.
"(The strategy) explicitly doesn't state noise, but as part of the regulatory requirements and airport noise restrictions, regulations, it certainly would be a consideration for recommendation," Mr Glass said.
He was also asked by councillor Jess Kellahan if other Border councils would be consulted and he replied surrounding municipalities would hear from Albury's economic development team about the strategy.
