A member of the Save Nottingham City (Tollerton) Airfield campaign has started a petition to have airfields reclassified as ‘Greenfield’ sites instead of ‘Brownfield’ to help protect them from potential closure and redevelopment as housing estates.
The petition to Parliament , which at the time of writing has attracted over 11,000 signatures, was started by Sarah Deacon, who said, “Airfields around the country are categorised as brownfield sites making them attractive for development of housing estates.
“However, airfields are often mostly grassland. Reclassifying them as green belt could help protect our green countryside, protect local employment and protect general aviation.
“General Aviation airfields are home to wild flowers, plants and grasses as well as many small animals and birds such as Skylarks which are on the red list. Many future commercial pilots start their training at these airfields.
“We can protect GA airfields from being so vulnerable to closure by designating them as greenfield sites. This could help to achieve the government’s strategy to achieve JetZero and NetZero- as well as help to cement the UK as a world leader in general aviation.”
The petition is open until 24 October 2024 and can be accessed by visiting the UK Government and Parliament website. Having already exceeded 10,000 signatures, the petition is guaranteed to receive a formal response from Government. To have the topic debated in Parliament 100,000 signatures are required.
