Prescott seeks to end light aviation?

[BEagle]

This will take only a minute of your time.....

Some of you may recall that earlier this year there was alarm amongst aviators, over the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's proposals to classify airfields as brownfield sites for the purposes of planning approval. If carried through, this would mean that any scheme to develop a GA airfield for housing or industrial purposes could be passed with very little regard to its amenity value. As a result of the earlier outcry by the GA community, the inclusion of airfields in the list was said to be a mistake, and it was promised that the clause would be withdrawn in the final version. You've guessed it, the final version has been released and its still there.

The reaction to the previous move was clearly effective, but everyone with an interest in aviation needs to act now. You can make your voice heard by electronically signing the following petition:

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Airfields/

It's easy to do and will take no more than 2 minutes of your time. If you havent already, do it now and help to save UK airfields from this threat and from John Prescott!

[stickandrudderman]

Good link.
Done:*

[camlobe]

Ditto.



camlobe

[chevvron]

Well you know this governments aims:
If it moves - tax it
If it doesn't move - knock it down and build on it

['Chuffer' Dandridge]

Does not surprise me. The useless chump of a DPM has got to do something with his time:yuk:

[BEagle]

"Gin and tonic please, steward!"

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a341/nw969/2jags.jpg

Giovanni Prescotti - that well known merchant mariner. Whose maritime experience consisted of serving drinks to the passengers......:hmm:

[Lucy Lastic]

Sorry - it isn't a Prescott thing any more. It's now the Dept of Coomunities and Local Government under Ruth 'Boy' Kelly.

Same civil servants though

[oby]

done.......the government (and thats all of them!) always wants to spoil our fun!

[gcolyer]

Done...twice becuase of typo in my own name!

Vot for me as prime minister...

1) No tax on GA
2) No tax on avgas, Jet A
3) No landing fees
4) Handling fees not mandatory
5) Less Class A
6) More lax planning permission to put an airstrip on your own strip
7) BBQ's must be availale at all airfields (weather permitting)

[tangovictor]

Come on all of you, sign up, it takes less than 1 min of your time

[Grass strip basher]

Done although I never got sent the e:mail to click on to confirm my details?? Anyone else had that problem??

[IO540]

Unfortunately, the email which that website sends out (to check that the email address you entered is really yours) is likely to get dumped by many peoples' antispam measures.

It's worth keeping a yahoo or hotmail mailbox just for this kind of purpose, and disable all antispam features on it.

Many people who use email have some kind of anti-spam feature at their ISP but they don't know anything about it, and lose loads of genuine emails as a result.

[matelot]

The DPM is only anti-GA because there isn't a SEP that could lift him...

[gcolyer]

The DPM is only anti-GA because there isn't a SEP that could lift him...

Oooh I think a PA32 300 will get him off the ground, but then the pilot would have to be about 5 years old for W&B purposes :)

[tiggermoth]

I've signed. Looks like there is over 3000 people on that list.

[christimson]

Mr Prescott ability to reason with the public . . .

http://www.funatico.com/play.php?clip_id=61

[BRL]

I will sticky this for a few days.

If it looks like it will go through, I might mention that he tried his very best to 'pull' my blonde, very sexy Norwegian friend who attended a Labour Party Conference in Brighton a while back......... :E :suspect:

[tb10er]

He's only looking for somewhere to park his two jags.
Plus, a quiet, empty hanger to help him live up to his name of "two sh$gs".
Uselss lump of lard if ever there was one

[BEagle]

You have friends who attend Noo Labia conferences, BRL???:eek:

Thanks for sticky-ing this - at 1658 UTC today there were 3189 signatures!

[Lister Noble]

All done,very quick and easy
Lister:)

[scooter boy]

Me too,
never trust a politician,

SB

[Established Localiser]

All Done
Prescott !!!!!:ugh:
EL

[helicopter-redeye]

Painless. Get the whole familiy to contribute - could triple + the responses.

I supose this is Prescott trying to stamp out priviledge & elitism amongst the middle classes, like big mansions, secretaries, free jags & stuff .... :hmm:

h-r;)

[kevmusic]

Done. Cheers, Beags.

".....I want to make clear that the things that I do are what I would do that that thing is what the people of this country are expect at the end of the day it is a very important matter and these airfields are there for the benefit of hindsight, as I have said all along."

Didn't he say that? Oh well, he probably will! :p

Kev.

[Lower the Nose!]

Petitions are a notoriously ineffective means of putting across a case to the government. An online version all the more so: it will be easy to ignore, not least because plainly very little effort is involved on the part of those signing their names.

What does occasionally work is enlisting the support of MPs who can take up your case with the appropriate government department. A brief, personally drafted letter (ie not a mass production round robin) is more likely to have the desired effect.

It is alleged in this case that the government had indicated that the inclusion of airfields from the draft wording of the bill was an oversight which would be corrected. If anyone can produce evidence that an undertaking was given it would make it that much harder for the government to wriggle out of this one. Anybody?

[Lucy Lastic]

Petitions are a notoriously ineffective means of putting across a case to the government. An online version all the more so: it will be easy to ignore, not least because plainly very little effort is involved on the part of those signing their names.

Very true. As well as signing up to the petition, write to your MP explaining the way the powers-that-be have ratted on their implicit promise


It is alleged in this case that the government had indicated that the inclusion of airfields from the draft wording of the bill was an oversight which would be corrected. If anyone can produce evidence that an undertaking was given it would make it that much harder for the government to wriggle out of this one. Anybody?

I had a letter from my MP about last year's effort and she enclosed a response from ODPM where it said that it was a drafting error and 'they would be considering reinstating the guidance (which they didn't). But, as you suggest, there was no undertaking - just an acknowledgement that the omission was an 'error'.

I replied at the time that this was no reassurance and have written back to her again asking her to get an explanation for the misleading reply she was given.

[BEagle]

Please do - I'm relaying it for someone else!

[172driver]

Done. Good one BEagle :ok:

[Dave Gittins]

Done ... and am no 3542. :ok:

[VFR Transit]

all done - 3548

[BEagle]

"Sorry - it isn't a Prescott thing any more. It's now the Dept of Communities and Local Government under Ruth 'Boy' Kelly."

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a341/nw969/Kelly.gif

Hmm - I see what you mean, Lucy!

[Bahn-Jeaux]

Hmm, page not available, tried IE and Opera but no luck.

[BEagle]

Works OK right now - 3784 signatures as at 2132 GMT 8 Jan 07.

[pulse1]

In response to me letter to my MP last February, the DPM's office wrote to assure him that the omission of the airfield exclusion was a mistake which would be rectified in the final version of the document.
I have now written to my MP again to ask him to object most strongly to being deceived by the DPM.

[ariel]

Hopefully,Ruth Kelly will have enough on her mind without worrying about airfields for now...

quote:
____________________________________________________________

Outcry as Kelly sends child to private school

FORMER Education Secretary Ruth Kelly was today named as the minister who had enrolled one of her children in an elite £15,0000-a-year private prep school.

The move, revealed yesterday, has outraged Labour MPs.
But until today the identity of Mrs Kelly - a Roman Catholic mother of four now in charge of English Local Government in the Cabinet, was unknown. Mrs Kelly has taken one of her children out of state education near her East London home and opted for a Home Counties private boarding school that makes a priority of helping pupils pass entrance exams to Eton and Harrow - two of England's top public schools.

Mrs Kelly decided there was inadequate help in local schools for the child who is understood to have reading and learning difficulties.
Her decision to take the controversial step has been strongly criticised by backbench MPs.

Norwich North's Ian Gibson said the move was "wrong" adding: "I deprecate anybody, any minister who chooses to do this."

[9238RJ98]

I've signed up - from what I understand Redhill is in danger....

[Cricket23]

Done, and the link forwarded to the other members of 'my' group.

C23

[Coke611]

Added my bit!:)

[Crash one]

All Done
Now can we send them all to Gruinard Island & re introduce the anthrax?

[rotorcraig]

Just signed; there are now 4453 signatures!

RC

[Airbus38]

Done and done, forwarded on to others etc.!

[RINKER]

Done no prob
R

[runway09]

All done just passed the 5000 mark now.

Runway09

[robin]

All good stuff, but here is the reality....

The road pricing petition has reached 200,000 names and this is the result.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/01/11/nroads11.xml

[Flying Lawyer]

So that's one lost - unfortunately IMHO - but maybe the PM will respond positively to the 'airfields' petition to show (or more accurately,to give the impression) that he has some interest in what the public think - despite all indications to the contrary.

Don't be defeatist. No match is lost until the whistle blows.
The approach to challenging cases I stress when training young barristers is .....

If you think you're going to lose the case, you probably will.

If you believe you can win, you might.



I believe that to be true.


FL

[jaycee46]

Just signed too!

Robin makes a good point about the road pricing petition, but The Tonster and 2 Jags, with their Govt cronies stand to raise loads of cash from road pricing, and we all know how much they love to do that, so they can waste it on more pointless projects!

In comparison, there isn't much cash for him in the planning legislation, but loads of potential bad press, which I'm sure the GA community will not shirk its responsibility in heaping upon him and his henchmen, should the need arise.

[Lower the Nose!]

If you think you're going to lose the case, you probably will.

If you believe you can win, you might.



I believe that to be true.


FL

Agreed, but petitions don't work!! Demonstrations do occasionally, and concerted lobbying does rather more often.

[tmmorris]

Demonstrations do occasionally

Tell that to the Countryside Alliance. Mobilised c. 400,000 people to march in London and still lost the battle with the class warriors in the Commons.

Remember, if you can afford to fly your 'own' plane, you are posh, and therefore a target.

Tim

[LowNSlow]

For what it's worth the total is up to 5,745 now!

[TangoZulu]

Done - see if anyone listens!

TZ

[jerrytug]

Job done he is a stroker

[ZFT]

Signed from here and circulated to others.

[Randomtox]

Added my vote

The total now stands at 6115 !
random

[davidd]

Added my vote
The total now stands at 6115 !
random

Added.

6849

[PH-UKU]

All Done
Now can we send them all to Gruinard Island & re introduce the anthrax?

Scuse me .. Mr Prescott is "one of yours" .. you can keep him ..... :=

after all, we've only just finished cleaning up Scotland after WW2 !!

[Norwester]

Signed it, even though I'm an expat.
Now if we can just sort out the weather for my next trip back to the UK, I might try to go flying again!
Good luck.

(Signatures: 7,323)

[HAL-26]

How about setting a target.

10,000 signatures before the end of the month. If we hit that number, maybe we can give AOPA and the flying magazines a headline for a story!!

It only takes a minute to sign up - and less than to tell all your flying buddies to do likewise.

Go for it!! :ok:

[poss]

Cheers for posting the link, we cant let our government do this. signed

[Just Cruisin]

Just wanted to get this back near the top; signatures have virtually stopped, and there must be a few more out there.:ok:

[Dysonsphere]

will do it when i get home damm work anti spam software

[Zulu Alpha]

Lets see if we can get in the top 3. Currently we're 9th with 9203 votes.

This website was mentioned on the today program on Radio 4. If we're in the top 3 then perhaps we can get a national newspaper or even the radio people to mention us.

Also, we do have some MPs on our side and they can point to this petition as evidence of public feeling.

I agree that the fight isn't over yet...unless we give up.

Please urge all PPLs that you know to vote

[Just Cruisin]

Slipping off the bottom again!:ok:

[Just Cruisin]

And again!
Petition has slipped back to 9th place.:(
Come on, tell your friends:ok: It probably won't work, but it certainly won't if we don't try!

[T10]

Done it 9594!

[Exasperated]

And me now 9621

[Thumperdown]

My signature added - 9662 :D

[Just Cruisin]

In case anyone's not seen it yet;)

[Aeronut]

I think the wording of this petition is very poor.

"We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to give consideration to a threat to airfields across the UK"


Are we asking him to start threatening airfields!


Another rival petition urges the PM to build on "underused" airfields.
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Buildonairfields/

Why would anyone be so bothered about that?

[Aeronut]

To illustrate how credible these e-petitions really aren't

How about this one:

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/goldanthem/

[PIGDOG]

Feel free to sign up but be warned; if you disclose which number you are, your anonymity is at risk. It's possible to count back along the names (it'd be a bit anal for someone to actually do this :eek: ) and match it up to the number in your reply.

For what it's worth, I've signed up. :ok:

[High Wing Drifter]

I think we need an e-petition to stop and remove the e-petitions site. Despite the good intentions behind the idea (I live in hope) I suspect these just generate more apathy. People think they've done something by 'signing' where as I suspect these petitions, bar two or three, are totally ignorable.