CITY Manager, Sibusiso Sithole, has agreed to release the findings of a feasibility study conducted by Royal HaskoningDHV on the future of Virginia Aiport. In December last year, operators were told they would be given a three year lease after which they will move to Scottburgh on the South Coast. The study concluded that Virginia was unviable for general aviation.
Now after months of ‘dodging’ requests to release the full report, Sithole has relented after he was forced to answer questions from Durban North councillor, Shaun Ryley, in a full council sitting on Thursday last week (30 April).
In a response to questions submitted by Ryley, the City Manager said the full report will be available on 7 May.
In September last year, the councillor submitted a Public Access to Information Act (PAIA) application to have the report released. He said while he was pleased that the full report was finally being released, he lamented the dragging out of this matter.
“Stakeholders and interested parties should have been briefed immediately after the report was presented to the city in the middle of last year. Instead of this, the city produced its own condensed version of the report and submitted recommendations to EXCO before stakeholders were even told. Consultation with stakeholders only took place in February and even after that the report was not made available to them. The matter regarding the future of the Virginia Airport site is of great concern to many of the residents and a number of businesses both within Ward 36 and in the greater eThekwini region,” he said.
Ryley has questioned why it had taken almost three months to release the report after the council meeting but received no response. He added he will be at the city manager’s office on Thursday, 7 May to collect the full report.
