Attention British AHers

[thrila]

I recieved this in an email today and it looks like it is indeed true.  If you wish for historic British airfields to remain then please read the article below and act.

Sorry that this is in the wrong forum but this is important to me.


WE NEED YOUR HELP TO SAVE BRITAIN’S AIRFIELDS

This is not a false alarm. This is the real thing.

A new definition of airfields as ‘Brownfield' sites has been sneaked into planning guidelines by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister - John Prescott’s dept.

If this goes ahead unchallenged, then ANY airfield with a building on it could be sold for development as a housing estate. Local councils, businesses and individuals would be powerless to object. There would be no need for large scale planning inquiries such as that happening over North Weald right now. Developers could just go ahead – and they will.

We could lose many of Britain’s airfields within ten years - the pressure for land for new housing is so great that these prime sites would be snapped up.

WE HAVE UNTIL 27 FEBRUARY 2006 TO ACT! DON’T DELAY!

The proposed change was sneaked in as a change within an Annex. It wasn’t even part of the full consultation document.

Was it deliberately hidden like this, or did someone forget to point it out? We don’t know but the change was only spotted last week – too late for inclusion in the latest issue of LOOP newspaper.

Hence this email – it’s the only way we can mobilise pilot and public opinion and register objections to the change before the 27 February deadline. We have consulted with the General Aviation industry and we have their full support.

Indeed, the whole of the GA industry, from flying clubs to engineers to pilot shops and airfield managers is also doing its bit.

WRITE TO YOUR MP!

A letter by post is the best form of communication. It’s a physical object which your MP cannot ignore. Imagine MPs standing up in Parliament waving handfuls of letters from constituents demanding that the Deputy Prime Minister explain his dept’s underhand methods!

Emails, phone calls, face-to-face meetings all have their place too. We have to let the Government know the consequences of their actions, whatever it takes.

HERE IS A SAMPLE OF THE KIND OF LETTER YOU COULD SEND TO YOUR MP:

Dear Sir

I would like to make you aware of a proposed change to planning guidelines by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister which could have a devastating effect on this country’s aviation industry.

Planning Policy Statement 3 (PPS 3) has been developed to progress the Government’s agenda to provide a national policy framework for housing. It says previously developed ‘Brownfield’ land sites should be considered for housing development.

The existing PPG 3 section defines ‘Previously Developed’ land with two example exclusions, hospital grounds and an airfield.

In the revised PPS 3, the definition has been revised and the airfield exclusion has been omitted.

My objections are two-fold:

First, this would almost certainly lead to airfields being closed for redevelopment. General Aviation is a big and valuable industry, supporting many jobs and essential services as well as providing recreational facilities for private pilots, of which I am one.

Second, most of these airfields are in rural areas with insufficient infrastructure to support such huge housing developments. They would change the character of much of rural Britain.

Finally, I also object to the sneaky way this change has been introduced - slipped in an Annex which would not normally be read by the parties involved in the consultation process. It has come to light with less than two weeks left of the consultation process – which ends on Monday, 27 February.

I would be grateful if you could voice our dissatisfaction with this proposal.

More information on this can be found at http://www.loop.aero

Yours faithfully





PLEASE WRITE TODAY TO YOUR MP!

Don’t delay. Tell your flying friends about this too - and if you live near an airfield you might want to let your local councillors know that they might have a huge new housing estate on their doorstep within a few years.

Find out the contact details for your MP at: http://www.locata.co.uk/commons/

Copy the letter to:
Office of the Deputy Prime Minister
Planning Policies Division (2)
Zone 4/J5
Eland House
Bressenden Place
London SW1E 5DU
email: pps3consultation@odpm.gsi.gov.uk


Response of the Popular Flying Association: http://www.pfa.org.uk/PFA Consultation.pdf

View the page on the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister website dealing with this: http://www.odpm.gov.uk/index.asp?id=1162075

Download a copy of the proposed document here: http://www.odpm.gov.uk/pub/97/ConsultationPaperonNewPlanningPolicyStatement3PPS3HousingPDF523Kb_id1162097.pdf

Useful info on airfields: http://www.gaac.org.uk


Thank you for your attention.

[Pooface]

OMG. turn our country's airfields into council estates?????????




that's ridiculous. i'll try get a letter out soon

[FiLtH]

Those cracked concrete, with grass growing up through the runways, and shabbly old hangers, are holding up progress. They have to go. I need a Walmart at Rattlesden.

[MajWoody]

Forward this to 10 people & something wonderful will happen within 48 hours. Really, try it. A friend of mine said that when he sent it to 10 people within 48 hours Bill Gates sent him a check for 25,000.00 dollars.
 This is not a hoax. Try it. If you break this chain you will have 7 years bad luck.


 J/K  

[beet1e]

thrila -

This is nothing new. I read that pro forma letter you wrote, and it looked exactly the same as others from earlier campaigns with a similar purpose 15-20 years ago. This whole saga was going on back then. Just a few of the parameters change from time to time.

GA airfields run by councils are the worst. Councils haven't got a friggin clue about running an airfield, and even back in the early 1990s, you could expect a landing fee close to £20 at places like Shoreham (grass strip) and Ipswich. The closure of Ipswich for redevelopment into a housing estate was on the cards way back in 1993 - has it happened yet?

The Flyer magazine used to run a column dedicated to saving airfields under threat. The usual pattern was to announce that an airfield was under threat because of lack of use. A "fly in" day would be organised on which the landing fee would be a nominal amount of ~£2, and everyone would go there. After the fly in day, the landing fee would be back to £10/£15, and it would be back to square 1.

I remember the closure of West Malling in Kent. The noise abatement lobby finally got their way, and no longer did they have the odd Piper or Cessna puttering overhead. The site was redeveloped for industrial use, and instead of the sound of Lycomings overhead, the protesters had lorries thundering through their neighbourhood. LOL - they got what they deserved.

In the late 80s, there was the beginning of a campaign to have Enstone (near Oxford) closed. This was still the time of the cold war, and the USAF operated F-111s from nearby Upper Heyford. Enstone was mainly a gliding, motor-gliding and microlight site. The campaigners were advised that if Enstone closed, the USAF would have no need to route around Enstone's airspace. Instead of the odd microlight or motor glider, the skies overhead the area would resonate to the sound of combat jets. The campaigners backed down!

As for writing to your MP, Dear Sir wouldn't do at all - my MP is Theresa May! But her predecessor was a bloke, and when he was called upon to help the plight of White Waltham airfield near Maidenhead, he went through the motions but it was clear to the most casual observer that he didn't give a stuff about the outcome.

All a bit sad, really.

[Replicant]

They're making a housing estate on the former Melton Mowbray airfield near to where I lived, mostly because they can use the runway/taxiway as roads/foundations etc.  However, main airfields under threat are those close to cities rather than those in the countryside.