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Keep Fairoaks EGTF Open Petition

That is sort of what Grant Shapps wants to do. I fear that he’ll be too late.

EGKB Biggin Hill

I dropped in to the planning meeting at Chobham village hall yesterday afternoon along with some other guys from the airport. I figured it should be “interesting” and I wasn’t wrong, with some full on argument between local residents and the developer’s representatives.

I initially expected that there would be a large number of local residents there who, having no interest in aviation, would be happy to see the airfield go. But that was definitely not the case. I would say that at least 95% of the local residents present, very few of whom use the airport, were strongly and vocally opposed to the development, for various reasons including traffic, pollution, population, stress on local services, damage to rare bird life, etc.

So whatever happens there will be very strong opposition to this development, and the case for keeping the airport is a minor aspect of the overall argument against it.

I would also say that the same 95% see the airfield as the “lesser of two evils” compared to the possibility of 1,500 houses.

So for anyone wanting to see the airport remain, I think you would be more effective in supporting the general case against the housing development, rather than supporting the specific case of keeping the airfield.

I would also say that the same 95% see the airfield as the “lesser of two evils” compared to the possibility of 1,500 houses.

That situation is mirrored elsewhere e.g. Shoreham. Some locals do like to moan about the airport but the great majority know they are better with the airport there, than having basically a council estate, with vandalism issues etc. Plus massive traffic on the local roads which were not sized for the number of houses served.

The basic problem is that if the landowner wants to sell up, nobody can stop him. Nobody can prevent a Manston-type closure. Planning policy etc etc can prevent the houses being built, but nobody can prevent the airport being closed by the landowner. That’s why I asked who owns Fairoaks?

But the landowner is “only” after money. Why can’t the residents of Fairoaks get together and buy the place? Probably, in the absense of a planning permission for housing, 5-10M would do. Shoreham, which also has no chance of getting houses built on it, can be bought for similar money. The problem is that almost everybody in UK GA wants to use a facility without paying for it. If Fairoaks was in say Switzerland, it would be like Lausanne! But Fairoaks is “in” London – there is a ton of money about there.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

The trouble is that that is also a recipe for the Madonnas of this world to close an airfield altogether.

EGKB Biggin Hill

The problem is that almost everybody in UK GA wants to use a facility without paying for it.

This is not a problem of UK GA alone…. How often have we had threads about “GA friendly” airfields? One of the main points which seems to make an airfield GA friendly are low (or no) landing fees. No way will anyone invest 5…10 millions in a business which is not allowed to charge for the service offered…

NB: I signed that petition as well but honestly don’t believe it will achieve anything. Furthermore there is such a flood of petitions created via the internet that the governments can only ignore them. A day has only 24 hours, even for polititians.

Last Edited by what_next at 27 Feb 14:55
EDDS - Stuttgart

what_next wrote:

A day has only 24 hours, even for polititians.

Sure, but they’ll come up with statistics to prove it has more (or fewer) depending…

EGKB Biggin Hill

This is not a problem of UK GA alone…. How often have we had threads about “GA friendly” airfields? One of the main points which seems to make an airfield GA friendly are low (or no) landing fees. No way will anyone invest 5…10 millions in a business which is not allowed to charge for the service offered…

The UK GA scene has for long suffered from an airfield lynch mob, very active on the UK forums, which slags off and boycotts every place charging more than about £10. Anecdotally, it appears that most of the really active boycotters fly only ~ 10hrs a year but they do a lot of damage via their domination of the UK forums with vast amounts of drivel postings. Thankfully we don’t have them here on EuroGA.

However I didn’t think other countries in Europe have this problem.

The trouble is that that is also a recipe for the Madonnas of this world to close an airfield altogether.

Nobody can prevent that, if an airfield is for sale by an owner who is sick of the hassle and infighting that is an inevitable part of owning a UK airfield. But not even Madonna, who could probably write a £10M cheque anytime, succeeded in buying and closing Compton Abbas.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Peter wrote:

Anecdotally, it appears that most of the really active boycotters fly only ~ 10hrs a year

Of course they don’t do more than 10 hrs, if they’ve boycotted all these places, there’s nowhere left for them to fly to!

Last Edited by alioth at 27 Feb 15:33
Andreas IOM

“Tens of thousands of new homes in greenfield areas to get automatic planning permission” <> “greenfield sites are to receive automatic planning permission to be built upon”

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

This came on email today

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom
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