Defence Helicopter
20 February
Weston’s grand plans for Battersea Heliport
Two apartments blocks (no surprise), a hotel (okay, still not shocked) - but within, or rather on top of, the hotel a dedicated helicopter passenger check-in served by its own lift, topped off by an air traffic control centre with views of approaching aircraft and an overhead vista of all aircraft movements on the apron?
This is not just a vision. Bob Weston, the new owner of Battersea Heliport, London’s only city centre dedicated heliport showed me the plans he has already submitted to the local authority, Wandsworth Council, for the development of the site along these grounds.
If planning permission is granted in the six months or so it will take for the decision to be made, Weston’s construction teams will descend on the site and start building.
“All along, we have had no intention of shutting it (Battersea) down,” claims Weston. “I can understand why people think ‘what is an Essex property developer doing buying an aviation business?’ and I will probably lose money doing it but its part of a bigger global picture.”
In the short term, Weston Aviation has got its CAA license and Weston intends to spend £60,000 on re-laying the heliport's apron.
Weston says that there are a number of good reasons why the move makes sense. “It’s the result of a sequence of events that leads you to an end place and we have bought a monopoly in central London.”
But Weston’s reasons for the purchase could be deeper than they first appear. In buying the heliport next to the land he intends to develop, he has sole control over the entire site. He wants to keep the construction project clearly apart from the aviation aspects, at least where dealings with the local authority are concerned. But as the entire site owner, objection handling and problem solving between him, potential customers and the local community should be easier. And as he says, although he intends to fully redevelop the heliport, he may not remain the owner when the builders finally go away.
“Once the hotel is built and the development up and running, would we continue to run it as a heliport or will we sell it on into the industry? I don’t know. Selling it on is a possibility because as the end of the day it is a business. If we establish other interests in aviation then we probably wouldn’t sell it on.”
- Andrew Drwiega