6 March 2007
The General Aviation Awareness Council (GAAC) has issued a press release with some good news for airfields which are designated (or might be designated) as ‘brownfield’ sites.
Last year, the Government revised its guidelines for local authorities on land for development. These guidelines omitted a crucial clause which specified airfields as being exempt from development (see our story <a href=’newsfeed.php?artnum=386′ target=’_blank’>here</a>). The government said this was a slip of the pen; however, it was not rectified.
More recently, though, there has been progress, with Baroness Andrews (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the Department of Communities and Local Government), in a written reply to Lord Rotherwick, drawing attention to para 6 of Annex B of PPS13 (National Planning Policy Framework for Transport). According to the GAAC, this states that Local Authorities should:
– identify and where appropriate protect sites and surface access routes, both existing and potential (including disused sites), which could help to enhance aviation infrastructure serving the regional and local area; and
– avoid development at or close to an airport or airfield development that would be incompatible with any existing or potential aviation developments.
In addition, Local Authorities should consider the potential of sites for aviation purposes, alongside any other considerations.
Additionally, the GAAC has received a letter from Transport Secretary Gillian Merron confirming that “Government fully acknowledges that General Aviation is an important and integral part of the UK aviation sector and has undertaken to actively consider a policy statement on the value of maintaining a network of General Aviation airfields.”
The GAAC asks that pilots should keep up pressure on government through their MPs.
