RAF Northolt

I would strongly suspect that the RAF/MOD will be somewhat perplexed by a local authority’s ‘plans’ to build on RAF Northolt, or that a bunch of councillors have decided that the base holds no real strategic importance.

I suspect the MOD/RAF might beg to differ on that. Alternatively, the councillors involved might wish to get themselves co-opted onto the next SDR if they think they have expertise in that field!

To be honest, this is all a bit of a non-story.

It has to be one of London’s largest brown field sites and has great transport links so it is a very logical place to build on.

It doesn’t have great transport links at all…….I live close to RAF Northolt, and the roads around the area are at almost constant gridlock status, the A40 past RAF Northolt is at a standstill in peak times. The Central Line and Met Lines are running at capacity already. The area is too crowded as it is, and the muppets at Ealing Council want to add 20,000 homes in that small area!!
I expect nothing else from Ealing Council though, sadly from my experience dealing with them, no one that works there has a chuffin clue about anything.
Muppets is being generous in description.

Proposal has been put forward by the Borough of Ealing, but RAF Northolt is in the Borough of Hillingdon

Brian

Matters not a jot, Green belt land(in Hertfordshire) north of Harlow (Essex) is earmarked for an extention to the town for 10000-15000 houses. I dont think parish or county boundaries count for anything in these times.

Proposal has been put forward by the Borough of Ealing, but RAF Northolt is in the Borough of Hillingdon

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/London+Borough+of+Ealing/@51.5274591,-0.3203396,13z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x4876128873ee670f:0x40eae2da2ec6820!8m2!3d51.5250257!4d-0.3415002

Although Ealing does have two golf courses within its boundaries that could be built on.

Brian

There’s an even bigger aviation related brown field site to the south of RAF Northolt!

This is nothing more than a populist attempt by Labour politicians to pile up more eternally grateful voters. That a bunch of politicians can opine that Northolt serves “no strategic purpose” without being charged to provide evidence is telling in today’s world. Here’s a clue – it’s very location is strategic in nature, given the proximity to key national infrastructure and the very uncertain times that we live in. The Olympics should prove how valuable it is, even more so now that other Op Olympic venues (such as Halton) are closing.

There’s also, as I understand it from friends based there, much local concern over the already chaotic traffic and transport links. It’s all very well saying that the A40 is close, as are 3 Tube stations, but if you put 20 000 homes (assume 80 000 people) into the area it will cause utter carnage. You’ll need to flatten more homes to improve the links.

There are better sites to build on. I’d suggest building New Towns outside with properly designed transport links would be better.

This drivel reminds me of the days after 9/11 when a Green MEP in Kent demanded to know why there were not SAM batteries protecting Dungeness power station only to be told “and how often have your party voted for an increase in the Defence Budget”?

How does one of the proposals ‘to build 40,000 homes and create 65,000 jobs’ solve London’s housing crisis exactly? Or are those jobs just created in building the houses? If you create 65,000 jobs permanently aren’t these 65,000 people going to need somewhere to live?

Mind you, ‘creating 65,000 jobs and making the housing crisis worse’ doesn’t sound too good does it? :rolleyes:

London has plenty of green field sites to use first. Hyde Park, Green Park, Richmond Park etc. There’s even a large flat area of gravel at the back of Whitehall that could be put to better use. :dev2:

It has to be one of London’s largest brown field sites and has great transport links so it is a very logical place to build on. It can not be sold off as a civilian airport as the runway would need to be shortened for civil standards as happened at Farnborough. That would make it too short to be viable for commercial operations. The Royal flight could move out to Benson, hold on that sounds familiar! Farnborough, Biggin and Luton could adsorb the bizjets .