Got this
Just got this. It would be amazing if it re-opened…
This is indeed exciting news esp. as I may retire to the South coast and fly from there. Shoreham being another possibility.
A bit dismayde to see only 18 doners on their crowdfund site so made it plus one.
The council is planning to re-open the airport – here local copy
What a joke… the leaseholder wants to sit on a closed site in the hope of building houses on it
It’s a Joke really. Even if they actually begin to reopen, at the pace things always move, it would take 10 years. Airfield closures in this country and have impacted me quite a lot.
Not that it matters a jot to anyone, but I have family in Plymouth 10 mins from the airport. Circa 4hr drive from here.
Family and friends in Manston. Circa 1hr 20 drive. (12 min flight)
Family in Sheffield (well, in a suburb) 15 mins from the airport. Circa 3.5 hr drive.
On a lesser issue, I used to benefit from Maypole (closed) and just before I got my licence, Canterbury closed. Family there too.
If it ever reopened I’d probably use Manston around once a month and in real terms that’s less than insignificant.
I thought this email might be interesting, on the topic of how much an airport is worth:
It’s barely worth anything.
How much SHG think it’s ‘worth’ based on hope-value for house building isn’t relevant. They can stick any figure they like on it, but eventually will come under commercial pressure to dispose of the asset at almost any price. At that point the price they’re asking for it isn’t relevant, it’s a fantasy figure.
Plymouth City Council has pretty obviously taken a planning position similar to Stratford DC with respect to Wellesbourne airfield, i.e. “You are NEVER going to be allowed to build houses on that site so you might as well forget about it”.
Graham wrote:
Plymouth City Council has pretty obviously taken a planning position similar to Stratford DC with respect to Wellesbourne airfield, i.e. “You are NEVER going to be allowed to build houses on that site so you might as well forget about it”.
Only developers don’t believe it and think, if we are sitting on it long enough that everything on it will be destroyed and unusable without “insane” money to make it happen, then they will cave in and open it for redevelopment. Bang.
We see the same story with different participants at Dubendorf Airbase, which was supposed to become the GA airport for Zurich. That land is worth literally gold. So three is fierce opposition not only from a noise part of usual suspects but mainly from people who see gazillions of money which could be made from the land if it ever was opened for sale. These guys have even more gazillions and are willing to wait a LOOONG time.
The only way something like this could be stopped is by introducing regulation that if a land is not used by the proprietor for its dedicated purpose for a number of years but someone else wishes to use it for this purpose, the use would be enforced either by forcing a lease onto it with a value determined by the council or it would even be taken away from the obstructor and sold on. This however is a very critical piece of legislation as it would question fundamental ownership laws. Yet, with infrastructure in mind, it would be feasible. But airports are not looked at as infrastructure by too many folks.
Yes indeed – they generally play a long game and are evidently content to wait and see if the political landscape changes.
But most have a limit somewhere, and then their business model forces an exit.
