11 February 2025
Campaign group Save Old Sarum would welcome would welcome a return to full-scale flying at the Wiltshire airfield which could be upwards of 60,000 movements a year.
That scenario is a possibility should plans to develop parts of the airfield site be turned down by the planning inspector at a hearing in Salisbury on 20 February.
Old Sarum Airfield director Grenville Hodge told FLYER in an exclusive video interview that if the planned development – which would see the airfield return to operations but at a lower level of movements – then they would have no alternative but to return to maximum flying.
That sounds ideal for General Aviation. However, the reason movements were reduced was because of noise complaints and in the past few years, more than 4,000 houses have been built close to the airfield.
Save Old Sarum is wholly opposed to the proposed plans at Old Sarum Airfield, on the grounds that it would irreversibly change the character, landscape and setting of the airfield which has its original perimeter and grass-landing strip relatively unchanged since the airfield’s creation in 1917. This was further protected by the airfield being designated a Conservation Area in 2007.
Wiltshire Council states that the proposed development site still forms part of the wider airfield context and development on this part of the Airfield would represent an erosion of the wider Conservation Area, diminishing the openness of the grassed operational area with consequential harm to the appearance and character of the heritage assets and their significance.
Furthermore, the applicant confirmed to the Salisbury Journal in September 2024 that Old Sarum Airfield “would be more profitable if it opened solely as an airfield and the housing application was rejected” (Elkins, 2024), and, “if unsuccessful the airfield would return to a level of flying upwards of 60k movements annually”.
We would certainly welcome the re-opening of the airfield and the return of aviation, unlike when in October 2019 the applicant evicted decades-long tenants, including a charity set up for the sole purpose of aiding less-abled people to enjoy flying from the historic airfield (Disabled flying school ‘forced out’ at Old Sarum Airfield, 2020), following the refusal of their previous planning application in the High Court.
The current proposals do not contain any legal mechanism to prevent future residents of the 315 new dwellings on the airfield site from making a complaint of noise nuisance which could lead to the prevention of flying activity, and possible closure of the airfield.
Without a legal mechanism to prevent this happening, this proposed development poses a long-term threat to this unique heritage asset and the continuation of flying activity which has taken place for over a hundred years on this site and the future of the remaining grassland within the airfield Conservation Area.
