Views on this?!please

[109ROAMING]

Hi guys

I want your views on this please

my local airforce base is closing Wigram in Christchurch New Zealand(approximately 400,000 people live here and 4 million in New Zealand)
as alot of New zealanders know well the airforce is a fraction of the size we once had

now a local tribe owns the airfield(part of a settlement)
These are the things that piss me off on the matter

1, They plan on bulldozing 4 of the 7 main historic hangars built in 1934 era
2, They plan on building app 2000 houses over the field(nothing in it for them but profit(money wise)
3,Their is plenty of other land around christchurch that the council could have allocated them.So WHY on the first airforce base in New zealand?????????
4,The land was in the fisrt place DONATED by a amazing man Henry Wigram, for new zeland aviation
5, To add insult to injury they plan on naming streets refecting the airfield.
6, Nobody in my country seems to give a rats a** including the christchurch city council.
7,I was their the other day on a tour of the restoration hangar .The Guy restoring the P-40 said it was extremly sad
8, Everyone I've heard from don't want houses built there and yet they just say oh dud dums its sad(WT absolute F)
9, Its the only other airport in Christchurch so in the event that a aircraft can't land at harewood the closest place for say a 737 will be dunedin
10, The tribe destroying the field have nothing associated with aviation the only thing they care about is the money they make in the housing decelopment.As if our government doesn't give them enough money(1 billion just the other week)

as you can hopefully make out I'm one of the only people who actually really care about the issue

can you guys just give me your thoughts on what i could do?to prevent New Zealands most historic airfield falling into the past and forgotten

I'm planning on sending letters tommorrow to the two local mps
hopefully someone out there agrees with me

I appreciate your thoughts

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

I think only one thread is needed for this topic...

[109ROAMING]

sorry DerAdlerIstGelandet having a shabby pc and being new got it a little mixed up

-Daniel

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

No worries. I just removed the other one.

[JugBR]

Originally Posted by 109ROAMING

Hi guys

I want your views on this please

my local airforce base is closing Wigram in Christchurch New Zealand(approximately 400,000 people live here and 4 million in New Zealand)
as alot of New zealanders know well the airforce is a fraction of the size we once had

now a local tribe owns the airfield(part of a settlement)
These are the things that piss me off on the matter

1, They plan on bulldozing 4 of the 7 main historic hangars built in 1934 era
2, They plan on building app 2000 houses over the field(nothing in it for them but profit(money wise)
3,Their is plenty of other land around christchurch that the council could have allocated them.So WHY on the first airforce base in New zealand?????????
4,The land was in the fisrt place DONATED by a amazing man Henry Wigram, for new zeland aviation
5, To add insult to injury they plan on naming streets refecting the airfield.
6, Nobody in my country seems to give a rats a** including the christchurch city council.
7,I was their the other day on a tour of the restoration hangar .The Guy restoring the P-40 said it was extremly sad
8, Everyone I've heard from don't want houses built there and yet they just say oh dud dums its sad(WT absolute F)
9, Its the only other airport in Christchurch so in the event that a aircraft can't land at harewood the closest place for say a 737 will be dunedin
10, The tribe destroying the field have nothing associated with aviation the only thing they care about is the money they make in the housing decelopment.As if our government doesn't give them enough money(1 billion just the other week)

as you can hopefully make out I'm one of the only people who actually really care about the issue

can you guys just give me your thoughts on what i could do?to prevent New Zealands most historic airfield falling into the past and forgotten

I'm planning on sending letters tommorrow to the two local mps
hopefully someone out there agrees with me

I appreciate your thoughts

does de airbase ocupies all the area where the tribe wants to build the houses ?

[109ROAMING]

pretty much got given the whole base but becuase the tower and museum are historic to my understanding they can't use the land occupied by these buildings.However they are so ignorant of history that they are planning on knocking down 4 other main hangars as these are so called "not historic" even though they were built in 1934.So they plan on using 90-95% of the base for housing to make money.The base was demilitarized in 1995 and When the government negociated the settlement they agreed that the air field would be open for cilvilian use for at least 10 years.That time has come and they have pounced.As i have previously said they're only doing it to make money.something I have yet to figure out what they will spend it on.

as someone else said 'God save me from the ignorant"

-Daniel

[<simon>]

I agree wit you 109, very sad indeed.

This very nearly happened to the first RAAF base in Australia, RAAF Williams, Pt Cook. This airbase was basically where the Australian Air Force was formed and was very close to being purchased by developers to, guess what, build houses on.
However, there was so much outrage by the Air Force and aviation community that the government had no choice but to back out of the deal.
The base has now been declared a national heritage site or something like that. Good news is, its future is now safe.

I urge you to email your politicians and get all your friends/supporters to do the same.
Maybe contact Graeme from Classic Wings magazine and ask if he could put an article in the next issue about this topic.
Are there any petitions up and running? I'm sure you could get a huge number of names from this site alone!

Good luck and keep us informed!

Cheers
Simon

[Njaco]

Sad to hear that Roaming.

[109ROAMING]

Thanks guys for the support.emailed Graham Orphan tonight and sent my letter to the mp of wigram.Will keep you guys informed

-Daniel

[<simon>]

Awsome

Good luck!!!!!

Any support needed just give us a yell....

[109ROAMING]

An update
No reply from either Graham or my letter to the mp of Wigram
may send a letter to the local paper(The CHCH star)
see if they'll do a poll on what people think should happen

doesn't look to good right now though

[<simon>]

What is the name of your local mp?
Can you get an email address or anything?

Strange Gramham hasn't replyed.

Keep up the good work though!

Simon

[109ROAMING]

MP of Wigram is Jim Anderton
will email him though , much more secure way of contacting him
I was told that recently there was an article in The Press(Christchurchs main newspaper) and it talked about outrage with regards to wigram.

I have yet to see the article despite searching the net for large periods of time.

Am planning on going into town sometime in the next couple of days and gettings a copy(about a week old now)


-Daniel

[Njaco]

Keep us up to date. It would be a shame to see this disappear in the wind.

[RabidAlien]

Definitely keep us up to date. And if there's any sort of "official" petition, with an online place for folks to sign, post it here!