FROM Monday, Scone Regional Airport runway will shut down for one month, weather permitting, as reconstruction works take place as part of a $23.5 million upgrade project.
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Upper Hunter Shire Council says the runway shutdown is needed to complete works that can't be performed when the airport is operational.
A number of businesses say they will be affected by the temporary closure, particularly East Coast Aircraft Maintenance which will have to close because no aircraft can land at Scone to be serviced in their facilities.
A group of airport businesses and users who are most affected by the shutdown have formed The Scone Airport Action Group, which is calling on council to ask the contractors to consider the option of keeping the runway open whilst the construction is occurring.
Ben Wyndham of Airspeed Aviation, who is the spokesperson for the group and one of the businesses affected, is questioning council's handling of the situation.
"It's like closing the road outside service station and not allowing any cars to access the business to be repaired whilst the construction is being done," he said.
"The council would not do that, so why are they closing the runway, when the work can be done in stages keeping the runway open and allowing the airport based businesses to continue to operate? That is what has happened at other similar airports. I don't know if they have looked at this option."
Upper Hunter Shire Council mayor Maurice Collison told The Advocate the original plan was to complete the work in stages and keep the runway open however the final decision came back to finances.
"Remember this project should have been finished, back when the public wanted the Independent Review, the sign of approval was only 8 weeks ago," he said.
"We've only had 8 weeks from when we said this project is happening, to it now actually happening.
"There hasn't been a lot of time. I suppose we could have stalled it, the original designs were to work around in different stages to leave the runway open.
"But the cost of that came back and it was above our budget."
Mr Collison said staff then "sat down and renegotiated and reassessed".
"They reassessed it and the more open space we had with machines to do it all at once made it a lot easier than doing bits and pieces.
"It was a decision based on finances but also to make life easier for the contractors.
"We believe we're doing the right thing by going back to the drawing board and making this job come in on budget or under budget, not over budget."
Bill Owen, the owner of East Coast Aircraft Maintenance, says they had no choice but to close down whilst the runway is being reconstructed and this means that 13 employees may lose their jobs coming up to Christmas.
"That's four weeks minimum, without rain delays. So once it's closed we have to somehow keep paying wages for an unknown period, with no cash flow, and no support from council", he said.
East Coast Aircraft Maintenance could have arranged a temporary relocation to another airport but six weeks is not enough time to arrange the logistics and investigate costs of moving, let alone getting the necessary statutory approvals from the Civil Aviation Safety Authority, he said.
"East Coast Aircraft Maintenance is my major maintenance sub-contractor and this will affect my business" stated Ben Wyndham.
"We can still operate from our Tamworth base but I really feel for the guys working at East Coast Aircraft Maintenance, because they can't move their operations and will have to close," Ben said.
"If we lose our major maintenance contractor at our home base, where does that leave the maintenance of my fleet?"
Mr Collison said council has been in consultation with Mr Owen for several weeks trying to come up with a solution for East Coast Aircraft Maintenance and that process is ongoing.
"I've had many phone calls and trips out to Mr Owen's business and I told him council will do all they can to work with him," Mr Collison said.
"We've made some offers about how we may be able to do things... there's rules and regulations regarding what we can do as far as moving to another airport to help him out."
The Bureau of Meteorology have said that November to January is likely to see above average rainfall across nearly all of Australia which has also left businesses worried the shutdown could be extended due to weather.
"Since last Thursday, we have had 145mm of rain and if things continue as forecast, I am told the reconstruction will take significantly longer than 4 weeks, maybe into January", Ben said.
"The council should have had as its number one priority to keep the runway open and the businesses operating, rather than just giving us 6 weeks' notice of a total shut down for a minimum of 4 weeks but which is likely to be 8 to 12 weeks having regard to the weather forecast", Ben added.
In regards to the bushfire season, Upper Hunter Shire Council says the timing avoids the peak emergency fire season of January and February and other measures will be put in place to ensure emergency aircraft can still land at a nearby airstrip during that downtime.
"East Coast Aircraft is a bit different because Bill Owen's planes are pulled apart," Maurice Collison said.
"I've sympathised with Bill and I think Bill will back me up in saying I have tried to come up with a solution but it is very hard."