Defence review 56 sites to close by 2040
I don't own this space under my name. I should have leased it while I still could
As for building housing, affordable or otherwise, on disused airfields, we have looked at several ex-airfield building sites and very few are places I would want to live. By definition the sites are remote locations built away from normal habitation. Building even expensive housing can't escape the fact that it lacks infrastructure and character. The last we drove passed was Upper Heyford. As I said, unattractive area compared with Lower Heyford.
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Can you imagine a house built by the MOD? Fifteen years late, ten times over budget, a heating/cooling system that only works between 15 and 20 degrees C, half a roof, and you can't get up to the bedrooms because nobody asked for stairs in the specification.
Cunning Artificer
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A slight problem with selling off RAF Halton is that it isn't just Halton House that is Grade II listed. Unlike the airfield, sports grounds and the now demolished PMRAF Hospital Halton, the whole of Henderson-Groves Barracks is Grade II listed as well. That will make it quite unattractive to developers who will have to get the site unlisted before they can begin demolition. The value of the site as development land is considerably reduced.
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I spent two years at Halton, one year on 3 Wing and one on 2 Wing. Are either the "Henderson-Groves" barracks? When Halton goes that means that all the stations I served on have gone - Halton, Watton, Cottesmore, Wittering, Wildenrath and back to Wittering.