“Sad to see the so called Urbex bods have trespassed at scampton”

These are just a bunch of a-holes. 

Genuine urban explorers make a particular point of not breaking in, only entering where there is a clear and easy access, and they have a rigidly adhered to rule that they only look and record – they do not interfere with stuff, do not cause damage and do not remove anything. 

I’m a bit surprised that these airframes are still at Scampton – HHA’s website is saying the Sukhoi (98+14) and Buccaneer (XX885) are in storage at Leeming!

“According to Scramble.nl, PA474 was static and flying “

I think Scramble have got that wrong – PA474 was flown to from Henlow to Waddington in April 1965 on a ‘one flight only‘ permit, and was in the early stages of restoration to flight when the airshow took place in August.  It had already had the KM-B code of Sqd Ldr Nettletons Lancaster applied by then. A pic taken at that show can be seen in the following thread from 2005: https://www.key.aero/forum/historic-aviation/43810-airshow-pictures-from-the-60-s

Did you mean Kier? 😉  I agree, a change in the political colour of the Government will be unlikely to change anything.

“….The government has announced the use/requirement will be for 3 ½ years….”

It goes up everytime they say anything about it.  Anybody who thinks that the arrangement is anything other than indefinite (and likely to expand in size) is deluding themselves.

Re. XH558: “….However, the local authority have purchased the site and granted XH558 a right of stay….”

As far as anything that has been made public is concerned, Donaster Council are still in negotiations with Peel regarding leasing the airport from them in order to re-open it as an airport. Nothing has been said about trying to purchase the site.  Obviously if that plan comes to pass, XH558 will be able to remain at Finningley (Doncaster Council have always said that want it to remain there).  In the meantime, VTTS have negotiated with Peel for an extension to their permission to remain for now.  As yet there has been no public announcement about anything being a ‘done deal’.

The situation with Northstowe and Waterbeach is hardly comparable with Scampton.  The area around cambridge is an area of high demand for existing and prospective employees for the ever expanding technical and industrial companies and organisations that flourish in and around Cambridgeshire. Shorter commutes involved and already a great deal of transport and energy infrastructure in the surrounding area.

By comparison, Scampton sits in the middle of a virtual employment desert – an area of lower demand for extra housing, and a very long way to travel for anyone living there to find employment.   Housing needs in the area are already being better satisfied by developments in towns and villages closer to the Humber bank industries, or around Grantham and Sleaford where there is much better provision for transport links for commuting long distances (in spite of the distance involved, both Grantham and Sleaford act as dormitories for a significant number of folk who commute to London).

It is a least half an hour by car to get to an operational station  from Scampton. 

As I already said, there is not the necessary infrastructure for energy and water provision for large scale housing anywhere remotely close.

I think nearly a thousand acres of extra housing at Scampton is unlikely in the extreme.

@batfastard – I think that you don’t appear to have much understanding of the situation.  

Scampton is within the area governed at district level by West Lindsey District Council.  It is they who had spent a great deal of time (and local council tax payers money) on devising a scheme for the future use of the redundant RAF Scampton which should have seen the airfield continue to function as such, and would have provided a base for aviation related businesses alongside this, and would have been a positive social and financial asset to the area.  They had also invested time and money in setting up a company (Scampton Holdings Ltd) to oversee the redevelopment of RAF Scampton.  West Lindsey District Council have tried to do everything that is within their power to resist the commandeering of the base by the UK Government, but have been repeatedly ignored and even outright lied to by civil servants from the Home Office.  

The former Christmas Market you refer to took place within the City of Lincoln, and was run under the oversight of Lincoln City Council.  Lincoln City Council have no jurisdiction over the area in which Scampton is situated, just as WLDC have no jurisdiction over the area run by the Lincoln City  Council so your claim that it is the same council is complete and utter nonsense.  Labour have a majority on Lincoln City council, but it is by no means ‘dominant’. West Lindsey District Council is currently under the control of the Lib Dems, having had some years being Conservative run (the Scampton plans were set up under the Conservative controlled period).  Labour are pretty insignificant in WLDC (as indeed they are over most of Lincolnshire).

The decision is not because the Government is spineless. it is because it is the Government who are commandeering the site, and they have repeatedly just bulldozed past concerns raised by WLDC, and totally ignored the views of the Council, of businesses that might have taken part in the Scampton Holdings venture, and those of local people.  The local MP has also been very vocal and has tried to raise the issues in Parliament, but he too has been ignored and lied to.  Civil servants from the Home Office have had more than one meeting locally with representatives of the local people and local businesses – the overwhelming opinion of those fortunate enough to be allowed to attend and make their views known was that they were just a ‘going-through-the-motions’ event, and that the Government representatives showed no interest or understanding of the views put forward, but were solely interested in pushing the asylum plan at them.  Several people who attended were reported in the local press as  having the opinion that the Government’s representatives at these meetings were telling them nothing but pack-of-lies after pack-of-lies.

The rest of your post makes no sense at all – Scampton Holdings was a business venture set up in conjunction with the District Council (with the wholehearted support of the local people who elected them).  It isn’t the council setting up a business venture to make profit for the council.

The Government began by lying about the asylum plan being for only one year; now they are saying three years.  My guess is that three years is also an outright lie and that the asylum centre will be there indefinitely – there is certainly going to continue to be a need for it unless the Government and Home Office get of their backsides and do what they should have done in the first place – namely putting in place the manpower and physical/financial resources to process the asylum applications of these people in the shortest possible time, and then get the successful quickly integrated into the working population of the UK, and swiftly return the unsuccessful ones (and the out-and-out freeloaders) back to wherever they came from. 

I don’t really understand why certain people keep assuming that it will end up being used for housing?   It is very highly unlikely, for many of the same reasons that RAF Scampton is a wholely unsuitable place to house large numbers of asylum seekers – it is alongside an already very busy major road (the most direct main route between Peterborough and Hull), which creates a problem with the likelihood of a very large increase in traffic associated with over 900 acres of houses (where the WLDC/SHL proposal would create little or no more traffic than there was when it was operating as an active RAF station).  There is also the problem of provision of essential services for that volume of housing – Scampton is in the middle of nowhere in that respect, and would require a major investment in acheiving sufficient supply of electricity and water in particular.  There is also no particular need for extra housing so many miles away from where the occupants of those houses would work, and at present there are plenty of more suitable areas around Lincoln, Scunthorpe, Grimsby, Sleaford and Grantham which are currently being developed for housing (or will be avilable for development in the future). 

My suspicion is that when (or more probably IF) the Government relinquish the Home Office usage of RAF Scampton, it will mostly become derelict (indeed, seeing the way the Home Office has so far behaved, and the way they seem to have little interest in preserving the heritage of the site, I fully expect most of the airfield to become pretty derelict whilst they are occupying it).

Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/the.avengers.1965.s04e09.the.hour.that.neve…

Sadly, no clue in the footage to reveal the specific identity of the Mossie, although filmed at Bovingdon, as were 633 Squadron and Mosquito Squadron, and no doubt that the same aircraft were available. 

From what I have read elsewhere, I think both the Griffon engined Spitfires may be currently in maintenance and not available. 

The BBMF website seems very sparse on information, and singularly uninformative as to the identity of each of the Spitfires, and the current status (ie.undergoing maintenance or available for display).  They haven’t even mentioned the grounding there, which is not helpful to people who don’t look at the data robbing sites.

Apologies for the rant all but it is true…:- (

No, it is just your opinion 😉