Plymouth’s closed down airport could be reopened for flights – if the city council gets its way and the Government parachutes in enough cash.
The airstrip was closed in 2011 when long-lease-holder Sutton Harbour Group Plc (SHG) activated a so-called “Armageddon clause” enabling it to stop flights.
The 113-acres site has been disused since, and SHG wants to turn it into a mixed-use housing-led development.
However, a planning inspector’s report has banned development of the site until 2024.
Now freehold-owner Plymouth City Council has made it clear it would like to see the site reopened – a move that is likely to be supported by city businesses who bemoaned its closure.
Council leader Tudor Evans now says wants to see flying restored at the site in the north of the city.
The Labour politician urged the city council’s Conservative group to “stop playing politics” with the land’s future. The airport shut during a Tory administraion.
The council backed a motion from the Labour group on the issue at a meeting on September 16, 2019, which asked Cllr Evans to bring a report to Cabinet setting out the next steps for the site in line with planning policy.
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A new local plan protects the airport from redevelopment for five years, so until 2024, to give time for a viable business plan to be brought forward.
The Labour amendment, which was backed unanimously, replaced an earlier motion from the Tory group on the airport’s future.
Cllr Evans said the wording of the Conservative statement calling for a report on progress risked putting airport reopening in jeopardy.
So the Labour-controlled council voted to reject the Tory motion and backed Labour’s amendment, which called for Plymouth MPs to campaign for financial support from the Government.
Cllr Evans said the Government supported aviation in Cornwall and Scotland so should consider a subsidy for flights at Plymouth.
Cllr Evans said: “I do support the airport. I would never have closed it.”
The Labour amendment noted that in 2011 the then Conservative administration in Plymouth accepted a notice from SHG to close the airport because providing public commercial flights was non-viable.
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The amendment noted alternative options to keep it open were considered and rejected at that time. It also noted the council has been negotiating with SHG about surrender of the lease.
Conservative Patrick Nicholson, putting forward his motion calling for an update on progress towards reinstating aviation, said: “If we don’t develop an airport and aviation use on this site in the next few years, we never will.
“This is our only opportunity and it is an opportunity that we need to grasp.”
Tory Maddi Bridgeman said a 150-year lease was signed for the airport land in 2004. But after its closure the airport had been “stripped and left to rot.”
She said an operator was ready to take on the airport which could be running in a matter of months.
The Plymouth and South West Devon Local Plan adopted by Plymouth and neighbouring councils earlier this year protects the airport from redevelopment until a review of the plan.
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Business Live's South West Business Reporter is William Telford. William has more than a decade's experience reporting on the business scene in Plymouth and the South West. He is based in Plymouth but covers the entire region.
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SHG wants to build homes on the land and has outlined a vision for a new estate called Plym Vale.
The AIM-listed marine and waterfront regeneration specialist, which also owns a huge chunk of Plymouth’s waterside including the fish market, has said its lease still has 135 years to run and it has an option to renew for another 150 years.
Almost 38,000 people signed a petition to save the airport in 2012.