I would like to know the actual deal when it was originally built, at several ex military airfields, the land had to be offered back to the original owners descendants as it was often compulsory purchased, I seem to remember something when Hatfield was closed by Wasteaspace because of the financial gains to be had from the hardcore under the runway, it was then a clause was discovered that if the runway ever went they had at the time to restore it to farmland, it wasn't so some solution must have been found.
i just think airfields should not be brownfield sites and if they are developers taking them on should be made to develop the equivalent area in inner cities to get the go ahead.