Mixed results in airport funding push

Published on 24 August 2018

Council has had mixed results in its bids to secure funding for a major upgrade of the city's airport.

Council had been seeking funding to improve the terminal, runways, taxiways and aprons, fencing, lighting, and control systems through the State Government's Growing Local Economies (GLE) fund, but was recently informed its initial Expression of Interest (EOI) would not progress to the next round.

The submitted EOI broke the $21 million upgrade into three parts, giving the Government the option to fund individual stages of the project, or commit to a full facility upgrade.

The three stages include:

• Upgrades to fencing, lighting, and the T-VASIS system.
• Upgrades to the terminal
• Upgrades to runways, taxiways and aprons

Council's General Manager, James Roncon, said disappointment around the early lack of support for the project via the GLE fund was tempered by future funding opportunities.

"We thought our initial EOI was very strong, but it's important to remember that GLE is an ongoing fund, and we'll work with GLE staff to further refine our submission before lodging it again," he said.

"We've also applied to have the fencing, lighting and T-VASIS component funded through the State's Resources For Regions program, and Mr Humphries confirmed today that we've been shortlisted for consideration on that, which is great news.

"But regardless of any outcome, we've stated on numerous occasions that the airport upgrade is a priority project for Broken Hill and the Far West, and we'll continue to utilise every funding stream available now and into the future to bring that upgrade to fruition."