The owners of Nottingham City Airport have given notice to all residents to vacate by 06 June, marking the end of operations at the midlands airport.
Truman Aviation, the operators of the airport, where given the news by majority site owner Vistry Group on 04 March, which plans to build houses on the general aviation airport despite not yet having received planning permission.
In a statement sent to FTN, Vistry said: “With the site having been allocated for development a decade ago, we are keen to progress our plans and commence construction of the new homes, subject to planning permission.
“Vistry is working closely with Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire Air Ambulance about the redevelopment of Tollerton Airfield. We have agreed to work together to maintain a safe landing site which will ensure that the current air ambulance service can continue during the initial phase of development.
“Vistry’s site forms part of the wider allocation which ensures tha infrastructure is delivered alongside new homes providing new schools, sports facilities, green spaces, employment land community facilities. We estimate the some 500 direct and indirect jobs will be created during the construction stage of Vistry’s application, and once full site allocation is completed, some 1,450 jobs are expected to be created.
“We have worked closely with the Council on this comprehensive development and have consulted widely with the local community. We look forward to making further progress on these plans and providing Rushcliffe residents with much needed new and affordable homes and employment opportunities.”
Speaking to local reporters, Sarah Deacon, who formed the Save Nottingham City Airfield group, said: “It’s cruel and cynical to affect dozens of lives like this for no gain. Forcing businesses to close, making people redundant, cancelling apprenticeships, cutting training short, and all of this when planning permission hasn’t even been considered, let alone granted!
“Just because a site is allocated in a Local Plan for housing, it does NOT mean it will automatically get planning permission. There are so many factors to consider- and things that might not have been known at the time the site went into the plan.
“We need to let Vistry know, loud and clear, how much of a PR disaster forcing the closure of the airfield is.”
Truman Aviation boss Brian Wells added: “The developers were determined to have everywhere shut down for when they came to planning. We agreed we’d have two to five years here before they would take over.
“They even suggested they could keep one runway open for us. But the main board of developers say they’ve had enough of all these people protesting and decided to shut it down sooner rather than later. We were hoping not to get this for a couple of years and it’s very sad those plans backfired.”
The airport is home to a number of flight training schools, including Arcus Helicopters, CFS Flight Training and Sherwood Flying Club.
