A court has granted the Westpac Rescue Helicopter Service an injunction to stop Newcastle City Council approving the Knights' centre of excellence at Broadmeadow.
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The council's development applications committee was due to vote on the $18 million training centre on Tuesday but was forced to lay the matter on the table when the rescue service successfully sought an injunction in the Land and Environment Court that afternoon.
The court granted the injunction until an interlocutory hearing listed for 2pm on Tuesday next week and directed the council and rescue service to hold a conciliation meeting this week.
The Newcastle Herald understands Wests Group, which owns the Knights, and Venues NSW, which manages District Park, will meet with the council and rescue service on Friday.
The council could consider the Knights proposal at its meeting on Tuesday night if the court does not extend the injunction.
The rescue service wrote to the council in July objecting to the training centre, which would be next door to the helicopter base and includes a two-storey building, playing fields, floodlights and parking for 139 cars.
The service argued that the training centre would make crucial post-maintenance "hover checks" impossible and affect aircraft movements due to the increased number of people in the area.
The training centre could have "serious implications" for the rescue service's contractual obligations to NSW Ambulance Service.
The rescue service was also concerned about dust affecting helicopter engines during construction of the training centre.
"The proposed development, in its current form, may be contrary to the public interest," it said.
The service's chief executive, Richard Jones, a former St George rugby league player, told the Newcastle Herald in September that he was working with Wests and "in a very short space of time we'll have it all nailed".
But it appears those talks have not allayed the helicopter service's concerns.
A report by council staff which would have been tabled at Tuesday's meeting said Wests had amended its plans to minimise the "potential adverse impact" on the rescue service's operations and recommended the project be approved.
The changes included removing floodlights at the northern end of the training fields, altering a car park and design tweaks to the proposed building.
"At the time of preparing this report, a response from the service had not been received on the amended proposal," the report said.
Wests Group chief executive Phil Gardner said he could not comment.
The rescue service's Broadmeadow base is the principal maintenance centre for the four AW139 aircraft it uses for medical emergency flights and search-and-rescue missions.
The centre of excellence is being jointly funded by the Knights and the NSW government.
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