A 64 square metre helipad behind the Ballarat Construction Management building at 900 Humffray Street South will not go ahead, after a decision by Ballarat City councillors at an ordinary council meeting last night. 

City of Ballarat officers had recommended council grant a planning permit for the use of land behind 900 Humffray Street South as a helipad, subject to conditions.

Suggested conditions included the landing site only be used between 7am and 8pm every day and no more than 20 movements – take off and landing being counted as two – to be permitted to occur per month.

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Cr Belinda Coates proposed the alternative motion to deny the grant of a planning permit. She said green-lighting the helipad would set a worrying precedent for Ballarat, as it backed on to important Yarrowee Creek environment. 

“It hasn’t gone unnoticed that this particular application could set quite a concerning precedent ... we’ve only had one similar one in previous years,” Cr Coates said. 

“This area has taken decades to rehabilitate, it really has come back from the brink.”

The block is classified as industrial zone three and is more than 150 metres away from the nearest residence, the minimum distance required by the Environment Protection Authority.

Applicant and BCM director David Moyle said the planned helicopter was two tonnes in weight and the noise it created would not have been unreasonable. 

“A household blender or motorbike is louder than the helicopter we are proposing to use,” he said.