Planning Permission Applied for - new airfield, East Lothian, Scotland

[acoulson]

You'll find the details on the following web site,

http://www.planning.eastlothian.gov.uk/WAM/search/pas/index.htm

Search the Weekly list, the Ward is Aberlady/Gullane/Dirleton and look for the week ending 02 April 2006 (Site At South Of Dirleton East Lothian)

As applied for the application requests an 800mx25m grass runway, unlicenced (I think), with fuel and hangarage. This is a very serious proposal.


Andy

[acoulson]

Please Send a Letter Now
We have only 20 days left to send them in

4th April 2006





To All Aviators and Aviation Enthusiasts



You may have heard that a few members of the PFA East of Scotland Strut have got together over the last three years and have been trying to set up a new airfield in East Lothian. There is no local airfield for light aircraft, the closest alternatives being Perth and Cumbernauld. We have now reached an agreement with the farmer and planning permission was lodged on Friday 31st March 2006. A Press Release is attached which can be circulated to anyone who might like to know what is going on. If you need further details contact me [email protected] by email.



The Planning Dept. at East Lothian Council has been very helpful. Inevitably there will be a few objectors and these will be counted against the numbers of letters of support. We therefore need lots of letters of support to ensure the planning is treated sympathetically. Please can you help?



Standard letters distributed for signing do not count as more than one letter so each letter has to be created separately. I enclose a press release outlining the project and there are is list of positive items for you to choose from below. We would be most grateful if you could send a letter of support saying that it is a worthwhile project and giving a number of the following reasons or indeed any reasons you can think of.

This is a most important part of the planning process and we do not underestimate the value of each and every letter.



Thank you for your cooperation. This project will depend heavily on people devoting time an effort to help get it off the ground. We are hoping to build a clubhouse and a hanger to start with. All offers of help are welcome but all we need at this stage is for you to send a letter to the Planning Department.



Letters should be sent to:

Head of Environment

East Lothian Council

John Muir House

Haddington

East Lothian

EH41 3 HA



Reasons why East Lothian Airfield Project is a good thing:-



1. No other light aircraft airfield within 50 miles.
2. Recreational Facility for East Lothian.
3. Youth education facility for East Lothian and Scotland.
4. Create a few jobs in the area.
5. Contribute to the East Lothian economy.
6. Continues East Lothian Aviation traditions.
7. Promote careers in the Aviation Industry.
8. Add to tourist infrastructure.

[acoulson]

PRESS RELEASE

The East Lothian Airfield Project

4th

APRIL 2006

Edinburgh Airport can no longer accommodate light aircraft at affordable rates. This leaves East Lothian without an airport for visiting light aircraft and recreational flying, Perth or Cumbernauld being the closest alternatives.

East Lothian has a strong tradition in aviation starting with airships at East fortune, early flying training at Macmerry, the famous Drem landing lights developed during the war. These airfields have all been developed for other uses and East Lothian finds itself without an airfield.

Six aviation enthusiasts nearing retirement have just applied for planning permission for an airfield at Castle Hill Farm, 1 kilometre South of Dirleton. The project is initially to be a grass strip, a clubhouse and a hanger.

The expanding aviation industry needs pilots, engineers, controllers along with a host of aviation related jobs. Traditionally many of these posts have been filled by Scots yet this tradition is fast dying out. The intention is to run courses open to anyone in full time education in Scotland to provide an introduction to the world of aviation.

This imaginative development will provide a vehicle for those with a lifetime of aviation experience to enjoy passing it on in order to inspire and motivate a new generation of Scots in aviation. Light aircraft owners and flying clubs will use the airfield facilities to introduce youngsters to all aspects of aviation.

The Popular Flying Association, one of the flying organisations involved have a very active East of Scotland “Strut” as it is called. They are plane builders and enthusiasts who have a complete machine shop and five or six aeroplanes under construction and as many flying. They also gave more than 200 youngsters experience flights last year as part of their youth program. This organisation desperately needs a base to continue
the good work.

Other flying Clubs along with the Air Training Corps have expressed an interest in using the proposed facilities along with aircraft owners who share our commitment to the concept of education in aviation. It is intended that revenue from the airfield operations will be used to finance the educational side. This is a non profit making venture which will to some extent be self financing.

Initially a recreational airfield with educational facilities it will also provide facilities for visiting light aircraft. Flying training and aircraft maintenance are also a possibility in the future. It is hoped that eventually the runway would be paved and this would allow East Lothian to be able to offer visiting tourists an airfield facility.

The East Lothian Airfield Project will be recreational, educational, and an economic asset to East Lothian as well as offering opportunities for youngsters across the whole of Scotland.

[Gertrude the Wombat]

Inevitably there will be a few objectors and these will be counted against the numbers of letters of support. We therefore need lots of letters of support to ensure the planning is treated sympathetically.
Er, no. That's not how planning law works. It's not a popularity contest. Objections must be on planning grounds, or they are ignored, and if an objection is on a valid planning ground it doesn't matter whether one person writes in to say so or a thousand. Letters of support give interesting background to councillors, but again, unless they raise issue of planning law, they don't actually make any difference to the decision.

(I chair a planning committee. I don't actually know an awful lot about it, but I know that much.)

[aerosteve]

hello,

can anyone advise how this project/ application is getting on?

thanks...

[grow45]

Latest newsletter of the PFA Strut that is behind it says: -
" Dirleton Still Waiting…
Still no hard news yet, so watch this space. Just a reminder that when the Planning Permission goes through, the Strut will have a lot of fund-raising to do in a very short time, so start thinking now about how we can raise money for a clubhouse. The recent meeting in Dirleton with objectors went very well and local opposition now seems minimal."
so it sounds encouraging
g45

[IO540]

I have some experience of the planning process, and I think it must vary from place to place. I apologise if this is teaching some people to suck eggs, as they say.

To start with, the presumption is to allow development. Only if the proposed development contravenes planning policy for the region, can it be refused.

The first port of call is the planning officer. He/she has usually got a degree in town & country planning and knows his stuff. If an application does not contravene planning policy, he will approve it.

Unfortunately, there is another hurdle which is the planning committee. This is a bunch of about 11 councillors. Most know next to nothing about planning, and most don't even bother to pretend to. Most have never seen the drawings, let alone visited the site, prior to the hearing. The Lib ones tend to support projects, the Cons ones tend to block them regardless of merit or anything else whatever. There is a lot of under the table dealing going on; for example in one case I was involved in the chairwoman of the cctee was married to a local architect, and she was able to prevent most local architects as much as touching anything which she wanted to not be built. Another councillor (Cons) was phoning up locals asking them to turn up and object - this is kind of illegal (if you get caught) because the councillors are supposed to enter the room with an open mind. His mistake was to phone up somebody I knew :yuk: (There is exactly zero connection between local politics and national politics, BTW)

How does one get an application called before the committee? It doesn't have to go there. If it does, it depends on the local rules. In some places, more than say 10 objections drive an application into the ccttee. Where I live, any one of the 11 councillors can call it in, so the smarter objectors "work" on the above mentioned Cons councillor, and he calls it in.

The planning ccttee chucks out a lot of applications which do meet planning policy; they rely on the applicant being so thoroughly p1ssed off (having spent 4 figures getting that far, and having had his application "dealt with" by a bunch of self confessed ignorant twats) that he withdraws it, and indeed most do withdraw. A conservatory etc just isn't worth the fight.

The power of the planning committee comes wholly from the length of time it takes to get an appeal heard; currently 12 months.

The next step is the appeal. This is a 12 month queue, then you get a properly educated inspector from Bristol who will (in general) grant the application unless it contravenes planning policy.

About 80% (yes 80%) of applications which were chucked out in the ccttee are overturned (approved) by the appeal inspector. A complete joke. Fortunately for the councillors, very few people know about this.

So, what the seasoned applicants do is they get the architect to draw an up app for something which doesn't contravene planning policy but which is a bit ugly. This will pass the planning officer (grudgingly perhaps), and of course fails in the cctee. Then you stick an appeal in, and immediately stick in the application for what you really wanted all along. The ccttee is now faced with the likelihood of you getting it on appeal, and getting the 2nd (much nicer looking one) on appeal too if they refuse it, and you could be bloody minded and build the first one (which is sure to be cheaper to build). So they usually grant the 2nd one, against an informal understanding (they can't legally bind you) that you will withdraw the appeal for the 1st one.

The whole process is pretty sick. I suppose it's less sick than the old system where a colour TV and a hoilday in Benidorm for the planning officer did the job, but it's pretty marginal IMHO.

It's 90% local politics. It pays to get a very clever planning consultant, who knows the local politicians and works with them, from day 1. A DIY job is bound to fail.

[MyData]

IO540. That is a very depressing post. :(

[IO540]

The process is indeed sickening when it is your application that is being dealt with.

I also have some experience (from many years ago, motoring offences) of a kangaroo court called the Magistrates Court. But a MC doesn't even approach the blatent "1 finger up to the planning officer sitting right here in the room" which one gets in the planning committee. Indeed, a planning officer does sit in the room but is usually powerless to intervene because the councillors can sack him. The council solicitor is also present but he is usually a total wally.

I forgot to mention one important thing: nearly everybody thinks that one can only object to planning applications. As a result, the process is almost entirely negative. Every tom dick and harry (and especially all the dicks) writes in with an objection. The planning officer tosses most of it in the bin (metaphorically speaking) because most of them don't raise matters relevant to planning; they are usually rubbish, or stuff based on envy.

A letter in support is a rarity in most applications, and if written in proper planning-speak, by someone living nearby, it makes a huge difference. In some cases, it makes all the objectors look like a load of twats.

So, if you want something to happen, get some people to write in supporting you. Of course, you will do the same for them when they want something ;) Which, rest assured, won't be long - a lot of people want to do extensions, etc. That is the only easy way to beat the councillors. The other ways, one of which is higher up above, take longer and cost a lot more.

Similarly to writing in, one can speak in support in the committee meeting. You get 2 minutes or so. Independent supporting speakers in the committee are extremely rare.

I feel fairly strongly about this subject in relation to GA because where I live (the south) there are very few airfields, and none can be created. Yet there is no objective reason why an airfield should not be built in open countryside, with road access but otherwise miles from anywhere, so no nimby problem. The inflexible development regs prevent it happening, because as soon as permission is granted for something, it can "one day" be turned into something else and, eventually, maybe decades later, you have a load of houses there.