Clearly some people's reading skills need improving - this is a hypothetical situation as I clearly outlined in my original post.
Increasingly nowadays, hard core tree huggers (call them what you will) are questioning just about every hobby/pastime and it's impact on the environment/people etc. Whether or not pilots feel that they should have to justify their pastime is to my mind, an out of touch attitude, which has possibly led to the situation (in the UK at least) whereby airfields and flying in general are being questioned if not threatened outright - hence this thread.
So, in no particular order....
GA promotes:
Employment for future airline pilots.
Employment for Instructors, engineers and ancillary industry allied to aviation.
GA can make a positive contribution to safety in the form of supplying future pilots for Air Ambulance and Police work.
Complainants about noise pollution should then consider the relevance of this compared to modern jet engines and then consider how they are going to get a summer holiday without the industry.
Possible alternatives to airfield closure are new developments with the ensuing chaos that occurs during building works plus the increased strain on the local infrastructure.
Taxation on items such as Avgas contributes some £12m to the Exchequer.
Airfields provide jobs for the local economy plus local taxation which the area benefits from.
Does anyone have any idea what the overall contribution in the form of tax revenue is in the UK?