Northolt Hangar Petition deadline 11 Feb

any news?

Deadlines come and gone any news??

Email the PM like I did and ask them to relocate the hangar as I am sure there are quite a lot of civil airport who would love a hangar of this standard. I know these hangars can be saved as it has been done on so many sites before.

Another load of this govts total and utter bollox. Sorry chaps but my future residential plans lie elsewhere.

I like the way it says “buildings to be demolished to make room for a parade square”, the single most usefull thing any fighting force can have; I hope it p1sses on their parade, may be then they’ll wish they were parading inside the hangar (that was).

Yeah!! It’d look great at Brunty!! 🙂 Let’s be honest though, look at LPG’s Q shed project, it’s a massive commitment for a very well run preservation group. How many times the size of the Q shed is that hangar?? 😮 It’s a goner, sadly… 🙁

If there was time, one option might have been to dismantle the hangar and ready room and move them elsewhere for storage and then rebuilding. The MoD would probably have been persuaded to pay for it to be dismantled and moved elsewhere, it would be upto a third party to pay for it to be rebuilt, but where?

Is there still time?

Would it be prudent to allow the Hanger to be unerected properly than by a large bulldozer?That way it could be reused at another site to help protect the heritage of it.

Nice thought! Sadly I suspect that it will go the same way as the Lightning we had here at LTCC (RAF West Drayton) JCB’d before anyone could save her!

I’d loved to be proved wrong and the hanger saved!

regards to all Cliff

There,s demolishing and there,s demolishing….

Would it be prudent to allow the Hanger to be unerected properly than by a large bulldozer?That way it could be reused at another site to help protect the heritage of it.

As I understand things currently in progress at Northolt, this will, subject to future as yet unannounced cuts to the affected services, lead to a number of currently remote MOD facilities being transferred to the Northolt airfield site, which will continue to also serve when required as an operational MOD airfield, building work is already well underway on some of the new facility buildings around the airfield.

But this is not unusual for airfields to undergo modernisation so why the fuss really, the decision to demolish the hangars and associated buildings was made last summer as far as I can determine with the full blessing of the English Heritage previously tasked to review the proposals to this site and a number of others around the country, Sad to see the hangar go but at least the overall future of Northolt airfield has been secured for a number of years to come.

Yes – I wasn’t belittling the idea of the petition, just pointing out that it wasn’t government created as a “window dressing” exercise. It was almost certainly a foregone conclusion – but it was good to see that they won’t demolish it without doing an archaeological survey.

Yes, the petition was only started mid-December (by me), when I heard that the hangar was scheduled for demolition. I didn’t think there much chance of changing the MoD’s decision, but thought that it was better to try and do something, rather than just accept matters as they are.

Thanks to the 779 other people who signed – what it did prove to number 10 is that there are people out there who care about our nation’s heritage, and maybe next time a little more thought and consultation may take place. The response to the petition showed that some research had taken place (albeit the spelling of ‘hanger’) and that some faceless soul in Whitehall was put to the trouble of doing something.

June’s photocall may have a rubble backdrop, sadly. 😡

Sounds to me like the decision had already been made way before the petition was released.

Thanks for not caring.

You must remember that these petitions are created by citizens to try and shift government policy, not by the government for consultation purposes. I don’t know the precise facts of the case, but I suspect that this petition was created in response to an announcement that this hangar was to be demolished – i.e. after the whole decision making process was over, and the hangar was already doomed.

A lot of these petitions don’t have chance of success – I found one today that said “Remove the MOT on all but commercial vehicles. Motorists really do value their lives, the cost in time and money is just a make work scam.” I agree that the one to save Northolt was far better, but it demonstrates the quality of some of the petitions!

My hatred of the government

I did sign this petition in time. However, I have just received the following link from the Downing Street site.

www.pm.gov.uk/output/Page10967.asp

For those can’t access it for what ever reason, here’s the Downing street reply.

northolt – epetition reply

12 February 2007

We received a petition asking:

“We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Stop the demolition of historic Battle of Britain architecture at RAF Northolt.”

* Read the petition
* Petitions home page

Read the Government’s response

The Government takes its obligations to preserving the heritage of the defence estate very seriously. However, the need to preserve must be balanced against the need to fulfil our defence requirements, both now and in the future.

Project MOD Estates London (MoDEL) seeks to implement the Ministry of Defence (MOD) Estate Strategy by combining operations from a number of sites across Greater London at RAF Northolt. It represents a significant rationalisation of the defence estate in Greater London, consolidating the facilities occupied by UK forces onto a modern, integrated ‘anchor site’. This will generate a number of benefits in terms of reduced running costs, improved efficiency, consolidated resources and improvement to quality of life for the current and future generations of MOD personnel.

In investing an initial £180 million in the development of RAF Northolt the MOD developed a masterplan, informed by the English Heritage’s Aviation Thematic Review. This masterplan sought to deliver a fit for purpose site which improved the quality of service personnel accommodation while preserving and recording heritage elements. At only 190 hectares the site is a relatively small airfield and the area capable of development is constrained by town and country planning limitations. There are also issues relating to airfield operations and security restrictions.

Difficult decisions had to be made. Both the A type hanger (hanger 6), including the associated Operational ready room, and the former Operations Room (building 27), were not recommended for listing as part of the Aviation Thematic review and are subsequently to be demolished after an agreed scheme of archaeological recording. These buildings will make way for the new offices and parade square for the Queen’s Colour Squadron plus a facility to house the Central Band of the RAF and Headquarters Music Service.

Significantly the masterplan also includes enhancement to the setting of certain buildings such as the current Station HQ, (building 28) and the Officers’ Mess which is being sympathetically enlarged and its function retained in keeping with its Grade II listed status.

Through this MOD intends to strike the right balance between preserving the most important elements of our Nation’s past whilst meeting the needs of our armed forces in the future.

Sounds to me like the decision had already been made way before the petition was released.

Thanks for not caring.

Bump! – only two days left folks.

Roger Smith.