AN airfield used by both an air ambulance service and high-profile jockeys will be the focus of a public inquiry – for the second time in a year.

Hambleton District Council has announced a Government planning inspector will hear evidence about developments at Bagby Airfield, near Thirsk, North Yorkshire, after the authority launched an unprecedented number of enforcement actions against the airstrip’s owner.

The 13 notices seek to stop a range of activities at the airfield, including its use as a base for Yorkshire Air Ambulance and for a helicopter taxi – favoured by jockeys to get to meetings across the county – and as a centre for aircraft renovation.

The authority also issued the air ambulance service with enforcement notices over its use of the airfield, and the charity has since found an alternative base at nearby RAF Topcliffe.

Solicitor 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.

He said about 30 people, including flying instructors and aircraft engineers, relied on the airfield for their income and said they would be forced out of work if the latest round of enforcement actions was permitted.

A previous enforcement notice issued by the council in September 2009, requiring the removal of allegedly unauthorised modifications to aspects of the airfield, was quashed after last year’s public inquiry.

Some people living in Bagby and Thirkleby say the noise from the airfield has increased in recent years, a claim strenuously denied by its manager, acrobatic pilot Steve Hoyle.

Numerous workers at the airfield said they felt the council had been responsible for sparking a second inquiry, and questioned whether it was an appropriate use of public funds, particularly during the economic downturn.

When asked if the issues could have been resolved in a different way, the council’s chairman of planning, Councillor David Webster, declined to comment.

However, Independent councillor John Coulson said: “This has already been expensive for everyone involved and a public inquiry is quite an expensive way of resolving some of these issues.”