Tamworth council is one step closer to patching an $800,000-sized hole in its wallet as it moves to secure a tenant for "part" of the International Flight Training Tamworth Facility.
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In a closed session of Tamworth Regional Council's latest meeting, councillors voted to approve a measure allowing council staff to negotiate the terms of a lease with an unnamed flight training school that's looking to occupy part of the facility at Tamworth Regional Airport.
The facility has been sitting empty since spring 2021 when a temporary arrangement to house international abattoir workers ended.
The Leader revealed in March of this year the training facility has been operating at an $803,849 deficit to Tamworth Regional Council due to the vacancy.
Due to the size of the facility, it's feasible for more than one flight training school to take up residence, which would be a welcome windfall for the local council currently seeking ratepayers' approval for a rate increase.
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The council has been in discussions with multiple organisations interested in the pilot training facility since 2022, and Tamworth mayor Russell Webb said he's happy progress has been made.
"The recommendation [from councillors] was of course that we can move in that direction," Cr Webb said.
The Leader understands the Sydney Flight College (SFC), currently based at Bankstown, has been planning on opening an academy in Tamworth since June last year.
However, Cr Webb said he could not confirm nor deny whether SFC is the flight training school mentioned in the council's business papers.
The mayor also couldn't say when the school intends to move in or how much of the facility it's planning to use.
"That stuff's commercial-in-confidence. We can't really talk too much about it until other work's been done and all of the people involved in those negotiations have been spoken with," he said.
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