In December, I wrote the following to Grant Shapps in his position at the All Part Parliamentary Group for General Aviation, following his response to Sajid Javid, Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government:
Dear Mr Shapps,
I note your excellent letter to the Rt. Hon. Sajid Javid MP dated 6 Dec 2017 and welcome your support for the protection of our national aviation infrastructure.
As you are probably aware and as your APPG colleague the Rt. Hon. The Lord Adonis PC will certainly confirm, the National Infrastructure Commission recently published its report 'PARTNERING FOR PROSPERITY: A new deal for the Cambridge-Milton Keynes-Oxford Arc which concerns ‘some of our most productive and innovative places, delivering growth and prosperity for the whole country.’
The NIC report is certainly comprehensive; however, apart from a single mention of the area being within an hour’s drive of an international airport, there is absolutely no mention or consideration of the potential benefits which could be gained by encouraging development of existing minor, or even disused, aerodromes for business or private aviation in the CaMkOx arc. This is a glaring omission, particularly with the publication of EASA’s Opinion 06/2015, concerning Commercial Air Transport operations at night or in Instrument Meteorological Conditions using single-engined turbine aeroplanes. Quite obviously, CAT-SET (IMC) operations, together with the development of GNSS instrument approach procedures, have considerable potential in bringing benefit to the CaMkOx arc.
Not only must our aerodromes be protected from brownfield development, but surely they should also be considered in major NIC reports such as that to which I refer.
Lastly, in today’s Oxford Mail, the headline article concerns a potential new town near Great Haseley, between Oxford and Thame, to be known as Harrington. This would be situated at junction 7 of the M40, within the CaMkOx arc - and is only 4 miles from Oakley aerodrome and 3 miles from Chalgrove aerodrome. The development of either aerodrome to provide business or private aviation facilities for this new town should surely be considered.
I received a reply to my e-mail, which stated that the AAPG GA group will make sure the relevant Working Groups are made aware of (the e-mail's) content and the important role General Aviation can make to the area.
Since then, although Adonis has left, Sajid Javid has announced that Iain Stewart, the MP for Milton Keynes South is to be the ‘standard bearer’ for the Cambridge-Oxford corridor, according to the Oxford Mail, quoting the press release
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/g...silicon-valley .
Mr Stewart is a vice-chair of APPG-GA, so should surely insist that the NIC report on the CaMkOx ‘corridor’ must included an assessment of the potential benefits to the area resulting from preserving and developing aerodromes within the area.