You go back a bit! Based at Denham, we found Leavesden's RADAR extremely useful when coming back and the weather was a tad less than advertised. But then it was owned by Rolls-Royce, so who was going to pay to keep it open when they didn't need it any more?
I recall the CAA pulling Elstree's licence a few years ago due the parlous state of the runway, until they patched it. I'd guess the cost of a full resurface somewhere around £1million. Who is going to pay for that? Is that Lake Bucaneer all covered in green mould still there?
I never enjoyed going to Elstree. Our Head Office was there and we had to drop off a/c for servicing, waste of an afternoon as far as I was concerned, but they did pay me!
I would imaging the runway would need to be closed for a hangar construction if the equipment was going to infringe the safeguarded surfaces, possibly the sideslope if it's near the rest of the buildings.
TOO