Probably why he said 'effort' and not 'money'.
The people of Plymouth will take a little while to forget their airport. Even if it were to reopen in five years time, they would still have an inkling that it had existed and local press hype (repeated front pages on the Herald etc.) would probably be such that they certainly wouldn't be able to avoid knowing about the reopening.
So we shall see. But it certainly hasn't been too long since it closed to reopen it.