From this in 2016
To this in 2018
At the meeting of the Parish Council, held on Wednesday 10th April, the PC was pleased to welcome six members of the team from Dyson who are involved with the restoration of "our airfield", and four members of the public.
Amongst the Dyson members present were Ollie Blair, from the Dyson Communications Office, who attended the Dyson presentation held in the church last year. Ollie was instrumental in getting the "on
yson" magazine printed (usually only available online) so that hard copies were available for those in the parish without computers. The magazines have been distributed around the parish and gratefully received - more a family heirloom than a company magazine! Copies have also been given to the Museums in Malmesbury and Chippenham and the Wiltshire Records Office.
We were also introduced to Steve Deakin, the Facilities Manager at Hullavington who, when alerted to the fact that the stile at the back of the Village Green - on land in the ownership of Dyson - was in need of urgent repair, ensured that the work was carried out to an excellent standard. Thanks were conveyed to Ollie and Steve.
It was confirmed that the various works covered by approved planning application 17/02344/FUL were nearing completion with hangar 86 (before and after photos above) occupied and hangar 85 expected to be occupied in June of this year.
Hangars 180 and 181 are also expected to be brought into use shortly following the re-turfing of the hangar roofs.
It was explained that the Masterplan for the airfield - application no. 18/08271/OUT - which was submitted to Wiltshire Council (WC) in August 2018 was still under consideration by the Planning Officer!
This covers many aspects of the complete restoration and development of the whole site and, over the next few years, separate applications for various projects within the Masterplan will be submitted for approval.
One of these is application no. 18/08273/FUL, also submitted in August 2018 for the "Provision of new access arrangements to site, comprising a re-aligned section of C1 road and new roundabouts at both the junction of the A429/C1 roads and on the C1 road".
It is hoped that the decision regarding this application will be made shortly and will mean that there will be a new roundabout on the A429 which will make it much safer to exit the junction by the Karting Hangar - an improvement that is at least 10 years overdue.
The latest planning application 19/02543/FUL, submitted on March 12th, is for the "Construction of new hangar adjacent to Hangars 85 & 86 and associated works, extension to existing runway and provision of new runway lighting, and erection of new airfield fencing".
The decision date for this is 11th June but I suspect that it will also be delayed as has been the case with all the other applications!
This application has caused concern to some in the village and parishioner Sandra Barnes asked various relevant questions all of which were answered satisfactorily.
Sandra has established, by checking with the CAA website, that an application has been received by them from Dyson in relation to the development of the runway. This application states that they hope to have various licences in place and the runway operational by April 2020. It is also stated that they forecast up to 60 fixed wing aircraft movements a year and 300 helicopter movements a year. Hullavington Parish Council supports the application, with reservations, as it considers that it lacks detail. All the planning applications referred to above can be viewed on line on the Wiltshire Council website: wiltshire.gov.uk