7 November 2022
Wellesbourne Airfield is safe for the foreseeable future following a renewal of the agreement between Stratford District Council and the owners of the airfield site.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the two parties ensures aviation will continue at Wellesbourne Airfield whilst plans for the future enhancement of the facility are developed and discussed. Stratford council’s threat to compulsory purchase the airfield is still in the background to ensure the owners stick to the agreement.
As ever, the devil is in the detail and the council has been specific that the airfield’s functions and facilities continue to be fully available. These include:
The MoU was agreed in August 2022 and is in force for two years “or until such other date as the Parties may otherwise agree in writing”.
Meanwhile the airfield owners and associated developer, Gladman, are working on plans for what’s designated as a Suitable Developable Area. That will have to be submitted to the council as an outline or hybrid planning application.
Even then, the airfield owners have to manage the airfield infrastructure and facilities “to ensure that the Airport remains open and existing operations retained during the construction and operation of the development”.
2 comments
I had a couple of texts from people today who hadn’t been in touch for a while to congratulate me on the news that Wellesbourne Airfield had apparently been saved. (Again). Sadly, they didn’t know that Take Flight Aviation had been evicted for leading the campaign which ultimately saved the airfield (although my concern is only temporarily).
The airfield owners stated in court that they had been running down the airfield for many years in order to make the site more attractive for development. A number of tenants had already left the site before the remaining handful of business tenants took the owners to court to renew their tenancies and subsequently lost.
Following the business owners losing the battle to renew their protected tenancies, Stratford District Council started to pursue the Compulsory Purchase (CPO) of the airfield to which they had already committed, if they could not come to an agreement to acquire the airfield by voluntary acquisition from the owners.
At the suggestion of Take Flight Aviation the council issued an article 4 direction, removing the owners permitted development rights, thus preventing the owners from immediately demolishing the tenant’s buildings, for which they had already received buildings regulation approval. This is the reason that the owners gave at a meeting as to why they would not grant Take Flight Aviation a tenancy, as Take Flight had scuppered their plans and prevented them doing what they want with the land!
Despite the council voting to purchase the land either voluntary agreement or by CPO, council employees entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the airfield owners. (The Parish Council stated that this agreement breached the statutory authority of the local and neighbourhood plan). The MoU agreement between the council and the airfield owners, required the owners to contact all the remaining tenants at the airfield and offer them tenancies, however the owners refused to offer Take Flight Aviation a tenancy, despite being according to the airfield manager the airfields best customer and tenant. It also required the owners to submit plans for the future of the airfield. This was over 3 years ago!
Rather than challenge the owners for breaching the MoU agreement Stratford District Council choose to ignore representations from the Parish Council, MP and Department for Transport regarding the breach of the MoU and assisted the owners in evicting the largest business from the site. Freedom of information requests have since revealed emails suggesting “off the record meeting” between the developers and council officials.
The suggestion by the owners and council employees that the airfield will now have to be partly developed to make it sustainable is quite ridiculous! Why would the council reward the owners with development opportunities, when the owners have been deliberately running down the airfield to make it unsustainable, contrary to local policy?
The action taken by the airfield owners cost the tenants hundreds of thousands of pounds, even having to pay the landowners legal fees, following losing the battle to renew their leases. The owners therefore seem unlikely and trustworthy business partners to run a successful airfield. Given that the ‘brownfield’ element of an airfield (if indeed there is any at all) only relates to the already built upon areas (i.e., taxi ways, runways and existing buildings), what development potential at the site is left? A plan to build elsewhere on an airfield has and should have no more planning potential than any other greenfield site.
If we want the UK to be the best place in the world for aviation and inspire the next generation of aviators and engineers and seek development of carbon free flying, we need to stop closing airfields, legally protect them and stop rewarding owners with huge pay outs who deliberately run them down.
Mike (Take Flight Aviation Ltd)
(PS Nice picture of Wellesbourne from Take Flight Aviation)
Yawn!!!!