Is the CAA being forced to disband its Airfield Advisory Team?

Is the CAA about to disband its Airfield Advisory Team, set up in 2021 by then Secretary of State for Transport Grant Shapps?

Suffolk County Council believes that’s underway and has called for the government to “prevent [the] scrapping of [an] influential department”.

Suffolk County Council has written to Mike Kane MP, Minister of State for Aviation, asking him to review the proposal.

“Without such expertise, considerable projects such as pylon runs or solar farms could end up being put in ill-informed locations, risking the viability of existing airfields, and the safety of those that use them and who live and work nearby,” said the council statement.

Councillor Richard Rout, Suffolk County Council’s Deputy Cabinet Member for Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects, added, “The effective and technical advice that we have received from the Airfield Advisory Team has been essential to a number of projects that we respond to, on behalf of Suffolk’s communities.

• Transport secretary Grant Shapps talks to FLYER

“As an example, they have directly helped with making improvements to the Norwich to Tilbury pylon project, to lessen the impact on Suffolk residents and businesses.

“Without such expertise, considerable projects such as pylon runs or solar farms could end up being put in ill-informed locations, risking the viability of existing airfields, and the safety of those that use them and who live and work nearby.”

FLYER asked the CAA to confirm whether the Airfield Advisory Team (AAT) is to continue but we have heard nothing yet.

The CAA says the role of the AAT includes:

• Providing advice to General Aviation (GA) airfields.
• Being a point of contact for GA airfields seeking advice from the CAA.
• Engaging with licensed and unlicensed GA airfields, to improve our understanding of their viability, operational and business issues whilst improving their understanding of key Government or CAA issues, such as changing regulatory policy.
• Advising Government of developing risks and trends which impact the sector and provide a regular update on specific airfields that have been identified as at risk or are facing challenges where the AAT can provide support and advice.
• Providing advice to local authorities on how proposed changes might impact the wider aviation industry (for example, considering the potential wider impact of the closure of an airfield).

When it was set up by Grant Shapps, Labour’s Angela Rayner wrote to the Cabinet Office complaining that the Secretary of State had “not only breached the Ministerial Code but a complete and total breach of integrity and decency in public office”.

Her complaint was that the AAT would block “the building of thousands of much-needed homes”.  Ms Rayner also named FLYER magazine “which campaigns to block development on Britain’s private airfields”.

Airfield Advisory Team

The reported conduct of @grantshapps appears to be not only a breach of the Ministerial Code but also a complete and total breach of any standards of integrity and decency in public office.

We need an investigation into the Transport Secretary’s lobbying using taxpayers’ money. pic.twitter.com/d8fzOsWJPy

— Angela Rayner (@AngelaRayner) November 15, 2021