25 October 2022
Plymouth City Council will take legal action to regain control of Plymouth Airport, closed by property developers Sutton Harbour Group 11 years ago, if a deal cannot be reached.
Councillor Richard Bingley, leader of the ruling Conservative group, told the Plymouth Herald, “We will start a legal process if necessary to acquire the land that was formerly the airport site. That land should be used for aviation purposes.
“We will take it through the courts process to acquire the land if that is what is required.”
Sutton Harbour Group (SHG) took over the airport in 2000 but closed it in 2011 after invoking an ‘Armageddon clause’ in the contract with site owner Plymouth City Council. SHG has a 135 year lease with the right to renew for a further 150 years.
In 2013, the city council approved SHG’s application to build houses on the southern part of the airport, rendering one of the runways useless for aviation. Earlier this year, SHG unveiled its masterplan to build on the rest of the 113-acre site, and put a value of more than £27m on the land.
Cllr Bingley says an airport is vital for the economic development of Plymouth: “We should not be propping up Exeter Airport, a city of half our size, we should develop our own airport. I can’t think of any other city with a population of 300,000 that does not have an airport hub.
“We have businesses, a massive university and international firms here. It’s almost disrespectful to our residents and investors to not provide fast aviation service to other key cities,” he told William Telford, Business Editor of the Plymouth Herald.
Campaign group FlyPlymouth says the airport was “still worth fighting for” and said it had offered above the market value for the site.
Plymouth Airport will be 100 years old in 2025.
1 comment
This is good news for Plymouth and GA, which would make up the majority of aircraft movements. It would also be a great airfield for hangar homes: http://www.hangarhomes.co.uk/plymouth.html