CONTROVERIAL plans to build new hangars at a North Yorkshire airfield have won the support of a local business leader.

The chief executive of the York and North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce, Len Cruddas, said good air links were vital for York's future prosperity.

Elvington Park Ltd, which runs the airfield at Elvington, a few miles from the city, wants to build two new hangars, saying they are needed to bring in revenue to help pay for a £2m backlog of repairs to the airfield.

Mr Cruddas claimed providing facilities for foreign businessmen to fly to York could make the difference between investing in the city and going elsewhere.

"If someone wants to locate a business in the area, for example, from America, and lands at Manchester Airport, and then waits for the train and then rattles across the Pennines for an hour-and- three-quarters, they could lose the will to live before they get to York," he said.

The hangar proposals have come under fierce fire from Elvington parish councillors, who claimed that there was no justification for such a "large-scale and intrusive" development.

Villagers at nearby Heslington have claimed that the hangars could eventually lead to jumbo jets flying regularly over southern York, although that has been strongly denied Elvington Park Ltd.

The company has said that unless the plans are given the go-ahead, York could lose its aerodrome at Elvington with a serious impact on jobs.

Mr Cruddas backed the company's arguments, saying: "We are not talking about large passenger aircraft, but an airfield where businessmen, and also visitors and local people generally, can fly in and out in smaller aircraft."