Madly expensive as it sounds, here in Cambridge, Marshalls have said they would be prepared to move and give up the Cambridge Airport site for housing IF an alternative location should be found and paid for nearby. If Cambridge Council, Marshalls and BAA / a.n.otherAirportOperator got together it might just be feasible to reopen Alconbury / Wyton etc.
Riping up Cambridges perfectly good runway complete with ILS and local maintainence facilities seems an expensive way of doing it however! EGSC even has a fast (45min) railway line to London running alongside the site! Cambridge is a NIMBY hotspot however.
http://www.streetmap.co.uk/streetmap...258629&A=Y&Z=3
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Just keep it
Ginger!