Airport campaigners claim victory

Campaigners are celebrating “a watershed moment” in their fight to reopen Plymouth’s mothballed airport.

The airport in the north of the city was closed in 2011 by leaseholder and operator Sutton Harbour Group, which argued that it was no longer viable.

The land is protected for aviation use by Plymouth City Council in the draft Joint Local Plan, a proposed planning blueprint for the South Hams and South West Devon.

The plan was scrutinised in detail by government planning inspectors at a series of public examination hearings in January and February this year.

Sutton Harbour Holdings has challenged the safeguarding of the land and previously published a masterplan to develop the 113-acre site for housing and commerce.

The job of the inspectors is to test the “soundness” of the plan, not to decide what is best for the region.In their “post hearing advice” to Plymouth, South Hams and West Devon councils, published last week, they suggest a range of modifications to the joint local plan.


Crucially, the airport land and its safeguarding is not mentioned, leading campaigners to believe that it will continue to be protected for aviation use.

Raoul Witherall, chief executive of FlyPlymouth, the company set up to acquire and reopen the airport, welcomed the inspector’s letter.

https://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/news/plymouth-news/airport-campaigners-claim-victory-battle-1919716

Never going to reopen. Move along. Nothing to see!

More chance of Nikk Barron and Clive Toms going on thw wagon than the Airport ever opening.

Houses to the north should have been compulsary purchased in the 1970's allowing a longer runway and first generation 737s to land opening up the gateway to Europe.
Despite what some suggested it would have been heavily utilised.

The services to originally heathrow and later gatwick were heavily used but it was the landing fees at both airports that closed the service when BA originally ran it and later air south west

Airport is no dream and this is no victory

22/8/2018

The Plymouth Herald carried a piece this week on Plymouth Airport in the wake of the Planning Inspector’s post hearing advice which was first reported on FlyPlymouth's Facebook page. The article was modestly worded in appropriate terms quoting FlyPlymouth as ‘welcoming’ the Inspector’s advice with ‘cautious optimism’. Nothing to be concerned about there.

But the headline writer – whose job is of course to sell stories – managed to confuse things with the dramatic sounding: ‘Airport campaigners claim victory in battle to keep dream alive’.

Nothing could be further from the truth. So, here are a few correctives for the record:

1. FlyPlymouth has not been involved in a battle in this planning process. The lines were drawn rather, between Plymouth City Council’s unanimous policies to safeguard the airport site for future aviation use in the Local Plan and the leaseholder’s attempts to overturn those policies so it could dispose of the land for residential development. FlyPlymouth has been a third party – clearly with a strong interest – not a principal actor. If there has been a win, it has been by Plymouth City Council. And council members of all sides are to be applauded for their consistent and unified position on this matter. In the words of Tudor Evans from an earlier article in the Herald, ‘ “There was not a cigarette paper” between the Labour and Conservative positions on supporting the airport.’ Readers of this article may wish to write to their local councillors and/or the party leaders and express their appreciation for what the Council has achieved so far.

2. This is no dream. The airport’s safeguarding is a rapidly hardening fact of local planning policy and that policy appears now to be on its way into the Joint Local Plan when that is adopted early next year. That means that the airport is a firm reality with the force of law behind it. There are commercial stages to progress through to seeing the airport reopened, but those stages will be based on the reality of planning policy which is supported by continually growing aviation and general aviation policy from central government finding its way into the Aviation Policy Framework and National Planning Policy Framework.

3. FlyPlymouth is not a campaign group but an airport operator in waiting. The campaign stage of work was carried out by its predecessor, Viable, resulting in the policy positions adopted by the City Council in 2014 at which point FlyPlymouth was created. All businesses campaign from time to time but FlyPlymouth has barely campaigned since it was created apart from Crowdfunding activities. It is however, ready with the experienced and competent team, the business plans, the customers and the resources required to deliver on Council policy.

4. FlyPlymouth has not claimed a victory here. We have welcomed the news with cautious optimism but made clear that this is a procedural stage within an ongoing process and any such claims would be precipitous. Change is unlikely but it is possible.

In any case, there is little to celebrate in that Plymouth airport has been closed for almost seven years now, valuable jobs have been lost, businesses evicted and the local economy has suffered from the lack of connectivity and the uncertainty created as a result. This entire episode has been a damaging and regrettable act of self-harm for Plymouth and one we should look to put behind us as quickly as possible.

Perhaps on the day when the airport reopens, new jobs are created and connectivity is resumed we can allow ourselves a moment of celebration, but not before.

http://www.flyplymouth.com/news

Seven more years!

Plymouth has no motorway link to the outside world.

Plymouth has a rail service to London that depends on the weather not washing it away.

Commerce goes on without needing antiquated Plymouth.

Why on earth would Plymouth want a Airport ?

Although this is all very well intended its an absolute waste of time and there is a clear lack of understanding on how airports work.

No current air operator is going to want to fly from Plymouth, so you'd be looking at a start up operating routes which would require a huge leap of faith. You only need to look at Airports such as Cardiff or Newquay to show how difficult it is to run an airport as a commercial venture without heavy assistance from the state.

Flying is so shit for the wurld.

Improving the railway links to Brizzle, London and deeper Cornwall is 50 times more important.

zyph wrote:

Plymouth has no motorway link to the outside world.

Plymouth has a rail service to London that depends on the weather not washing it away.

Commerce goes on without needing antiquated Plymouth.

Why on earth would Plymouth want a Airport ?

Slagging off The Muff from afar.....naughty zyph

Bar a few suits who would find it convenient for the old expense account Plymouth seems to manage OK.

For a city to prosper it needs two good transport links and ply mouth has 1 ish. No big boss who lives in London town is going to want to drive down to the factory in plymouth so instead he builds his factory in Exeter coz they have good transport links to London.  

So yes we need a airport and the m5 to plymouth .

lawnmowerman wrote:

For a city to prosper it needs two good transport links and ply mouth has 1 ish. No big boss who lives in London town is going to want to drive down to the factory in plymouth so instead he builds his factory in Exeter coz they have good transport links to London.  

So yes we need a airport and the m5 to plymouth .

agreed.

also need a decent railway service too.