Knockin Airfield under threat
 

Please see the appeal for help below from the owner of Knockin airfield.

National Grid Mid Wales Connection Project
Connecting wind farms through Mid Wales and Shropshire
Knockin Airfield has been in Existence for over 30 years, many of you have landed at Knockin or even used it for practice PFLs. National Grid have published their preferred route for this Ill thought out scheme. And I know that many are strongly opposed to the whole project. But what can we do? we will have this travesty foisted upon us in the name of “Saving the Planet”. This isn’t just a case of “not in my back yard”, it is ill thought out, uneconomical, and only works because of EU grants to the Welsh Assembly, National Grid and some very large landowners in Wales. The 150 ft power lines are due to go over the threshold of Runway 09 at Knockin Airfield.You can help by sending letters emails or phoning National Grid at any of these addresses.

via email to [email protected]; call the freephone number on 0800 019 5325 or write to our freepost address at FREEPOST NATIONAL GRID MID W CONNECTION

We shouldn’t Let them spoil Wales let alone Shropshire.

• It’s not Eco friendly,
• It’s not financially viable. “without Subsidy”
• It will spoil the, until now unspoilt Shropshire countryside.
• It’s a waste of taxpayers’ money
• It’s Big cash Profit for the Welsh assembly and some Welsh land Owners,
• It’s Big Profit for National Grid, paid for by us Tax payers.
• What can we do? Do we have a say in what happens to our country side with our money?
• We will be led by National Grid through a series of “Consultations” to the predetermined demise of our unspoilt Shropshire countryside in the name of “Green Energy” to profit a few insatiable financial appetites.
•
Let them Know what you think. You can also contact them via email to [email protected]; call the freephone number on 0800 019 5325 or write to the freepost address at FREEPOST NATIONAL GRID MID W CONNECTION

Thanks for your help

Tim Jones
Knockin Airfield
Sandford,
Oswestry Shropshire
SY11 4EX
07740 486 001

Tim

You know me well :E I totally agree these wind farms are pollutants of our beautiful countryside and big money makers for those who use the smokescreen of " Green" IMO they should be banned from the countryside and shoved out to sea "out of sight out of mind".
The real motives behind these things are money pure and simple and a lot of money at that!

Pace

Wouldn't it be better, in your response, to focus on the actual problem for your airfield, i.e. the prevention of use of it as a result of placing pylons across/close to the runway, rather than getting bogged down in endless wider arguments about the economics of wind energy etc? Surely you have a strong case that this new pylon line shouldn't be put in a place where your and others' legitimate use of the airfield is denied?
NS

NS

The problem is that there is huge opposition locally not just to destroying Knokin airfield but to the rest of the plans for these blots on the landscape being erected in an area which is regarded as one of the most beautiful in the UK!!!
We do not want these things FULL STOP!
They produce little power and if we must have the blots stick them out to Sea where no one can see the damn things!
So it is very much political!
If they want massive power lines to connect to them stick them underground at the windfarm developers expense.

Pace

Some organizations have Statutory powers. I'm not sure of all the details but the Electricity Act confers powers that don't need to go before any Local Planning Authority. This means that objectors could have an even bigger job altering the route of the pylons.

There's a chap called Peter Kember who has worked with a number of strips in a consultant role and it may be worth contacting him perhaps?

Good luck with the fight.

SGC

Pace:I think you would have more mileage if you stuck to your particular reasons for opposing, rather than just being another among many hundreds all citing every single argument they have ever heard against wind turbines. Your arguments about the airstrip will get lost if you do not ensure that the decision-makers focus on those, rather than "why we all hate wind turbines".

Looking at the route corridor options next to your airstrip, these consist of a corridor about 2.5km wide. You are just outside its eastern extremity. That seems to me to give reasonable prospects of negotiating a route which is at least a kilometre or two out on your final approach/climb out and therefore gives you good prospects for continuing safe operations in the presence of the pylons. I'd suggest that you engage with the developers in as detailed a way as you can, to achieve that aim.

I have some experience with this sort of thing if you're interested.

NS

NS

It is Tim the author of this thread who should contact you as I am sure you could be very helpful.
I know him well and used to fly out of this strip when I lived in Shropshire.

Many thanks for your offer of help.

Pace

North South

I posted the original notice on behalf of Tim Jones who owns the strip. I have sent his direct contact details to you.

Richard

A word to all:

Wind energy developers scour the internet for - sometimes frankly spurious - reasons to support thier applications.

This also includes reasons to demean their detractors.

Personally, I feel as aviators interested in protecting airfields, we should leave the other matters about wind turbines to the other groups.

If you have bird concerns, and are also a pilot, then make it clear which "flying" hat you have on, for example.

It is not beyond reality that wind energy developers will say after trawling the web: pilots have shown themselves as a group to be more anti-windfarms on economic, political and wildlife grounds than they are about air safety. (The Fife/Glenrothes "consultants" reports state almost that!)

Then they "disprove" the economic, political and bird stuff - and so say the safety stuff in bunkum too!

We are having plenty of this here.

Good luck in Wales - suspect you better engage with the developers and council soonest and present cogent reasons based on the various CAPs as to why this route is unsuitable and another would be preferable.