Invitation is a significant gesture
THE concerns and anger at the loss of our airport are issues which are not going to go away.
A casual glance at these pages will show that many people are exceedingly worried about the long term implications for the city of the Roborough facility's closure. Others - including The Herald - are determined to preserve the site's status as an airfield, to prevent this prime parcel of land being built on and being lost to Plymouth's transport portfolio for ever.
Now the campaign to safeguard the airport land has reached new heights with Business Secretary Vince Cable being urged to visit the site. The call, by Plymouth's Liberal Democrats, also urges Mr Cable to get the civil servants in his ministry to draw up a detailed report on the impact that the loss of the airport last December is having on business development and the city's economy.
We feel this is a significant step forward and are glad that this issue is being raised at national level. The need for regional airports in UK regions such as the South West has been identified by MPs in the shape of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Aviation. This has called on the Government to allocate regions a quota of any new landing slots to London's major airports – or to subsidise protected routes.
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This chimes with the push in Plymouth to make sure the airport site is protected from development; even if the current economic climate prevents any airline from flourishing in the near future. The invitation to Mr Cable is to be welcomed as it will hopefully make him fully aware that Plymouth needs to maintain its potential for an air link.
We must protect the airport site long term, even if we cannot have an airline here in the short term.
Comments
by timplymouth
Friday, August 31 2012, 10:58AM
“I was referring mainly to the taxation on petrol/diesel for cars. Mr Osborne keeps planning to put up fuel duty but climbs down at the last minute. It's only a matter of time before he starts putting it up again, especially if crude prices went down, which would benefit aviation. I'm not saying all this will happen, merely that the landscape changes very quickly and changes affect different forms of transport in very different ways. I wasn't saying that roads physically change very often, but the cost of transport does. How much do you think it would have cost to drive to Manchester 10 years ago? Not just fuel but insurance has gone up a lot. Who knows what will change in the next 10 years? What about the next 50?
Should we build over the airport for the sake of a few hundred homes? I'm all for building houses but in Plymouth we have plenty of places to build homes and virtually no suitable Airport sites.”
by Rick_OShay
Friday, August 31 2012, 10:14AM
“Quote: "With fuel prices going up and railway tickets going up air travel may be more popular for domestic usage in the future."
So rises in the cost of fuel will not affect aviation?
Quote:"Transport changes very quickly."
Really? When was the last change to the A38, M5 or railway line to London?
Mothballing the airport may seem like a good idea but the fact is that its in the middle of housing. Much better to develop it in line with its surroundings and build a grown up airport (if it could ever be viable, which I doubt) at Sherford. Ideally, as has been said many times before, simply travel 45 minutes up the road to Exeter and save the cost of duplication.
Rick O'Shay
Zog”
by Nevman
Friday, August 31 2012, 10:02AM
“Instead of belatedly wringing its hands and saying something must be done, why on earth doesn't the Herald try doing a little investigative journalism?”
by timplymouth
Friday, August 31 2012, 9:24AM
“Keep the land as an airport until someone wants to run it. Transport changes very quickly. With fuel prices going up and railway tickets going up air travel may be more popular for domestic usage in the future.”
by CharlieDodd
Friday, August 31 2012, 7:40AM
“Our American friends have got their priorities right-
"The most important main street in any community is its airport runway"- US Airports and Pilots Association”