Gunnedah Shire Council will look into tourism ideas for the local airport to reduce costs for ratepayers.
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Cr Owen Hasler raised the idea at last week's council meeting when councillors were asked to vote on allocating $27,000 to cover staff training and maintenance for the airport on Wean Road.
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Cr Hasler suggested that the council consider ways to reduce the "impost" on ratepayers by others means of "revenue-raising".
"Without an air-carrier, it means the beneficiaries are those individual users that use the airport," he said.
"When very few people are using it ... it does come back to the question of who should pay, and how much the community should pay to maintain that airport."
Cr Hasler suggested following the lead of other towns and selling land or using the space for tourism purposes.
"For the benefit of the ratepayer we should look at as many different alternatives as possible to keep impost on ratepayers as much as possible," he said.
"It's time that we should - other communities are doing exactly the same and have come up with solutions."
It does come back to the question of who should pay, and how much the community should pay to maintain that airport.
- Cr Owen Hasler
Cr Murray O'Keefe said Cr Hasler's amendment had given them "a great opportunity to start to conduct a review of airport".
"I think we've got numerous opportunities in our shire. I think that it would be wrong to only look at methods of reducing our expenditure and not look at increasing revenue, and revenue does not mean landing fees or penalising current users," he said.
"It may actually mean driving an increased utilisation or viability of the airport, looking at other options to grow our great shire."
Cr Swain said she was "a bit anxious" when she first heard Cr Hasler's suggestion but after consideration, felt it was a good "opportunity" for the council "to see what we can do out there, what's possible and what isn't".
The councillors voted for a report to be delivered to the council by the end of June because of the infrastructure department's heavy workload..