Council Votes Yes To Sir Tim Shadbolt Airport Terminal

The Sir Tim Shadbolt terminal has been approved by the Invercargill City Council, and plans are also underway to have a bilingual name for the airport itself.

But it wasn’t without some ribbing by one councillor, on whether they needed to honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi and have a Te Reo Maori version for the new terminal name as well.

Invercargill Mayor Sir Tim Shadbolt’ with the Stephen Jaquiery portrait. Photo: Otago Daily Times : Stephen Jaquiery

Cr Ian Pottinger reminded the council about its responsibility to have a bilingual approach to the naming of city buildings.

“Where is the consistency?” he said.

“This has to be one of the silliest debates we’ve ever had,” deputy Mayor Tom Campbell said.

Figure 2 Existing and proposed signage within airside wind lobby. Photo: supplied

Mayor Nobby Clark said that the airport board had already gone down that path of thinking about a Te Reo name for the building, such as Waihopai.

He said they were generally uneasy about getting involved in the politics of the naming of the terminal building, and were waiting on the council’s direction with that.

It was then pointed out in the meeting by several councillors that naming the airport and the terminal building were two different things.

Council, through Invercargill City Holdings Limited, holds 97.47% of the shares in the Invercargill Airport.

Figure 1 Proposed Sir Tim Shadbolt imagery adjacent check in area. Photo: supplied

“This is a simple resolution about respecting our long standing Mayor. Let’s get on with it,” Cr Lesley Soper said.

Cr Pottinger wanted it noted he remained opposed to the resolution .

Mayor Clark said the issue of future naming of council-owned buildings around the city hadn’t been properly addressed, and asked that it come up again at a future meeting, so they could finalise it.