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!
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