CAA’s Airfields Advisory Team to be closed
 

Just been reading the internal Suffolk County Council staff newsletter (I still work there three days a week) and found ‘The CAA is to close down its Airfield Advisory Team’. The Councillors have protested to Mike Kane MP, Minister for Aviation, that without the advice provided by that team, large projects such as pylons or solar farms could end up being put in ill-informed locations, risking the viability of local airfields and the safety of those that live nearby.

Well, am I late to the party with this news and does everyone know, or is it ‘breaking’? I had not heard of this before just now.

Mods, feel free to move / delete if I have missed obvious announcements etc.

[QUOTE=Luther Sebastian;11789512]Just been reading the internal Suffolk County Council staff newsletter (I still work there three days a week) and found ‘The CAA is to close down its Airfield Advisory Team’. The Councillors have protested to Mike Kane MP, Minister for Aviation, that without the advice provided by that team, large projects such as pylons or solar farms could end up being put in ill-informed locations, risking the viability of local airfields and the safety of those that live nearby.

Having been involved in several of these projects the CAA's involvement was near to zero.

Probably because they only get involved if they’re invited, usually by a GA airfield or operator, sometimes by a planning authority. But their role is a bit odd because they’re not the CAA as regulator, but every councillor/planning officer that reads/hears their evidence just assumes they are.

They were asked by us as a GA airfield.
Didn't appear to want to contribute.

Each licensed airfield/heliport must have an airport users committee and the local authority will monitor safeguarding so there's not a lot for the CAA to do.

Funding ceases at the end of the current financial year.

Having used their services on a number of occasions, all with positive results. Am sorry to see their passing. IMHO it was a very positive step by CAA (one of recent few) to give something back to the GA industry when the team were formed.

Hope that their staff can be absorbed into aerodrome standards. If so hope that they are not subjected to a lobotomy to remove their common sense, logic and pragmatism, as it appears a number in the current organisation have been subjected to.

We are talking GA National Licensed Aerodromes. They are not mandated to have a users committee nor go to the expense of having a Safeguarding Plan produced to lodge with their LPA. So safeguarding is invariably a DIY task for the aerodrome operator.

Further to what has already been mentioned on this thread the team were not just focused on safeguarding issues, they provided support on a wide spectrum of aerodrome operating issues.