Government proposals for 'brownfield' planning permission

Thanks for the heads up.

There seems to be many shaggy dog stories of buried aircraft remains on UK airfields. Perhaps some of these stories will be put to bed, one way or another, in the next few years.

Meddle – the argument about Manston is quite the opposite of preserving it as an ex military airfield. It is about the conniving and duplicity to thwart a proposal to re-open the airfield as a viable cargo hub with ancillary usage. See the thread in Commercial for all the background.

Just as long as there is also a removal on planning restrictions for new airfields (limited number of movements / restricted hours / only on the 5th Sunday etc) to replace those lost, otherwise the only way to aviate in this country will be from a major airport or by joining the military. GA will die – maybe that’s the grand plan.

In part the issue surrounding this legislation dates back to 2006 and John Prestcott, MP and the PPG3 legislation – The definition of ‘Brownfield’ in PPS3 Housing, Annex A [DRAFT] and how it affected airfields.

With respect to possible land contamination most planning applications already have to be conducted in accordance with DEFRA and the Environment Agency’s ‘Model Procedures for the Management of Contamination, CLR11’

I’m currently helping NAM to work through such an investigation (mitigation) in relation to its new Education Room, Café & Toilet project – it has to be proved the land on the Southfield Site is not contaminated before the building work can proceed.

Hopefully three previous successful developments on that land will help this case; although some limited ‘conflict archaeological investigation’ may be required – not looking for Spitfires (honest!) ;), but perhaps the fabled buried Stirling fuselage (calm down JL we have discussed this before!) 😀

A toughie. Britain needs more housing and disused airfields offer up large areas of pre-levelled land. I don’t think it is worth preserving every remaining war time airfield if there is nothing more than a small memorial to notify the general public as to why these vast concreted areas are being conserved. Why is Manston worthy of saving over any other airfield? I’m genuinely ignorant here. I don’t think historic airfields should be forgotten, but you could incorporate remaining buildings into a development quite sensitively.

Having said all that, some flats were built on the site of the former Parsons transformer factory here in Edinburgh and their method of removing years of heavy metal deposits out of the soil seemed a bit shaky, so I’m not sure I would let my kids go digging in the garden! Surely any airfield redevelopment could be stalled if you claimed, say, that radioactive dials had been smashed up on site or that there was a lot of live ammunition in the top foot of soil? Asbestos contamination?

Let’s hope this will be too late for Mrs Gloag. But if she had kept Manston open for the promised period this may have made her day.
All airfields, canals and railway land should be ring fenced against development that would mean that their original use could not be reinstated when needed.