Coventry Airport/ Museum future thread

Well done!

Just a little update

The word on the airfield today was that Mr Rigby has signed on the dotted line and now is the owner/operator of the airfield.

Good news for all I think!

unfortunately I still don’t have the details for our website. this will be rectified asap

re;

slight mistake on the Shackleton preservation trusts page, it says “air atlantique own Coventry airport”.

Well it appears as follows after today’s meeting with Sir Peter Rigby:

Main entrance will be moving up to Rowley Road, which is currently the entrance for the Tower and the Airpark. Whereas the Museum, Locomotive park and rugby club will be redeveloped to include a new science park.

Moggy

Well thats pretty much the 1994 plan as described in my post above, which has had the cobwebs blown off it !

I think my statement stands as is.

Well it appears as follows after today’s meeting with Sir Peter Rigby:

Main entrance will be moving up to Rowley Road, which is currently the entrance for the Tower and the Airpark. Whereas the Museum, Locomotive park and rugby club will be redeveloped to include a new science park.

Moggy

Museums View

Having spent the afternoon with the Museum Chairman I now have a far better understanding of the situation and it is far removed from the doomsday scenario possibly suggested.

Back in 1994 a planning proposal was submitted which effectively re-zoned the land occupied by the Museum, the Rugby club and the Railway collection as ‘contaminated greenbelt’ and therefore suitable for development (a possible science park was mooted at the time), more crucially it included a new ‘northern entrance’ to the Airfield thus removing traffic from Baginton village. The proposed site for this entrance was within the boundary of the Rugby club and nowhere near the existing ‘pope road’ which boundaries the museum and currently provides access to the ATC tower and fire services. This was dealt with by the museum at the time and eventually became a forgotten plan in a drawer within the Council; it certainly has not affected the development of the Museum in the meantime or been an inhibitor to any discussions on the Museums future.

As part of the current discussions regarding the Airfield’s future operation it appears this plan has been dusted off, crucially the part regarding the installation of a new entrance off Rowley Rd, presumably as a way of appeasing the nimby’s within the Village who are determined the airfield stays shut. There are no current or proposed plans regarding the other aspects of this scheme at present.

As a totally separate exercise the museum has been in negotiation with the Council regarding the renewal of the current lease for a further 30 years, over the past several months. These are at an advanced stage and at no time has the existence of the longstanding proposal above been viewed as a roadblock to this being successfully concluded. An agreement in principal was reached before the Museum committed its hard earned funds to the erection of the new education / lecture room, this perhaps sheds some light on how likely any development activity utilising this proposal is.

The Museum is to seek clarification as a result of this latest development, but its not viewed as an imminent or clear danger to the collection at this time.

It is however worth pointing out that no one and no collection is immune from the possibility of a local council coming and compulsory purchasing the land you occupy. In that unlikely event the Museum is well prepared to discuss how they intend to support the moving of a Nationally accredited, Regionally significant, Heritage collection with strong local community ties providing jobs and work placements, and links to several higher education establishments, recognised as a leader in its field. A bunch of old aeroplanes in a field it ain’t!

Mark, I am presuming the Council couldn’t simply throw the Museum off it’s site and a deal would be struck to provide a suitable alternative site and meet costs of relocating – emphasis on suitable. Strong management might be required.

Roger Smith.

I guess at the time of the planning enquiry, the airport was still open, and such problems were not foreseen.

Best of luck with it.

Bruce

Perhaps shouldn’t be too pessimistic – “every cloud” and all that.

Although a move would involve a lot it could be that the MAM will come out of it “smelling of roses” again.

Roger Smith.

Sorry Roger I do not see anything positive in what is currently reported. Unless the council / new owners are prepared to fund the moving of the entire museum infrastructure, including providing new buildings, then this is very bad news indeed.
Bizzarely the Museum has just completed the installation of a brand new lecture room / education centre out of museum funds (a not insignificant investment of several tens of thousands of pounds) and at no point during the planning process was anything relating to the current reported ‘developments’ even raised by the council…..

sorry moggy i only just saw that Jag had edited his post 🙂

Hmm – if the reports on pprune turn out to be right, it doesnt look good for the museum.
Bruce

Perhaps shouldn’t be too pessimistic – “every cloud” and all that.

Although a move would involve a lot it could be that the MAM will come out of it “smelling of roses” again.

Roger Smith.

http://www.pprune.org/airlines-airports-routes/204900-coventry-97.html

.

links bruce?

Hmm – if the reports on pprune turn out to be right, it doesnt look good for the museum.

Bruce

Unfortunately i’d heard the same a while back, when the Swiss? Company was looking to acquire it

Two points Bruce.

As regards “developing” the land, both MAM and the Airport fall within Warwickshire and Coventry does not have control of planning issues – hence the refusal/continued opposition of the new terminal application.

I’m not sure of the current position but Coventry City Council had a slightly different relationship than just Landlord and Tenant. When we (The Midland A.P.S.) first came to an agreement with the Council (1975) to lease a small plot on the edge of the airport we were rented it “for a peppercorn” – an old legal term for a small sum of money. The basis of this was that the Museum would take over/relieve the Council of it’s duty to record, present, etc the history of aviation in Coventry.

Also, with regard to the NIMBYs, there is (perhaps), currently, a ‘window of opportunity’ for the new airport operator. The news (announced almost the same time as the confirmation of the Papal visit to the airport in September) of the planned route for the proposed high-speed rail link from London to Birmingham has got the locals stirred up. The route will pass close to the airport and the NIMBYs will be busy fighting that. Perhaps the new operator should resubmit another planning application for a new terminal while their thoughts are elsewhere. :diablo:

Roger Smith.

Moggy I assume its taken from the posts on pprune

Its a truly worrying development and a potential bombshell.

http://www.pprune.org/airlines-airports-routes/204900-coventry-97.html

I’m going to drop into the Museum after work now to see what they do (or do not) know!
There is currently a meeting of tenants being held at the Airport with a museum representative in attendance.

Roger,

I am, of course no expert, and it is a long time now since I was a resident of Coventry! My comment was based on my own interpretation of the land – of course when you are the council, it is rather easy to develop road infrastructure and land as you see fit.

A 10-12 year lease is a worry in any case – I can see an eager council employee being keen not to renew the lease when it does come up.

Bruce

The Midland Air Museum’s site, including it’s car park, is 4.3 acres (more than a few square feet) owned by Coventry City Council and on lease to the Museum. I would estimate the lease has about another 10 – 12 years to run.

Althought the MAM’s original site WAS part of the Airport the ‘new site’ was agricultural land adjoining the airport boundary – both areas owned by the Council.

Bruce you say “not a prime piece of airport land” but it has a long road frontage (Rowley Road) which might be attractive for development. However access to the airport through the MAM site would not be straightforward as there are two substantial buildings near the boundary of the airport – but maybe that’s not what is meant??

This is worrying – are you able to say where your information is from Moggy?

Roger Smith.