Council unveils reasons for airfield crackdown (From The Northern Echo)

Council unveils reasons for airfield crackdown

10:38am Friday 17th February 2012 in Thirsk News

COUNCIL planners have revealed why they have launched an unprecedented crackdown over a grass airstrip used by an air ambulance service, business leaders and high-profile jockeys.

Hambleton District Council served the owner of Bagby Airfield, near Thirsk, with 14 enforcement notices in November in an attempt to resolve a five-year dispute about aircraft noise levels, which has already included one public inquiry.

Lawyer Martin Scott, whose plan to build a three-bedroomed clubhouse with extended aircraft hangars and a helicopter landing pad at his airfield was dismissed after a public inquiry last year, said he had no choice but to appeal against the enforcement actions, forcing another Planning Inspectorate hearing.

About 30 people who rely on the airfield for their income, ranging from a manufacturer of small aircraft to pilots who fly jockeys to horseracing meetings, said they would be forced out of work if the appeals are dismissed.

The authority has withdrawn one of the notices after agreeing that a hangar had been on the site for ten years.

During the five-day hearing in May, council officers will tell the planning inspector about numerous alleged unauthorised developments at the airfield overlooking the A19.

The council will claim there is no planning permission for changes of use of land and buildings on the site, including one hangar where aircraft logs and maintenance records are stored and another relating to Yorkshire Air Ambulance’s flight crew room with toilet and wet room for its crews.

A council spokesman said the occupation of one of the hangars by aircraft repair firm Swift Aviation created “a significant change in the character of the use of the land, introducing a much more commercial element, evidenced by the refurbishment of a consignment of aircraft for the Jordanian Air Force”.

The officers will also attempt to prove that some of Mr Scott’s claims over how long the 44-acre site - which was first used as a base for flying in the early 1970s - has been a centre for various activities are inaccurate.

A spokesman for Bagby Airfield said he was confident all the council’s claims would be disproved at the inquiry.