Campaign launched to save Filton Airfield. South Gloucestershire, UK.

A CAMPAIGN has been launched to fight plans to close and develop Filton Airfield.

Labour councillors in South Gloucestershire have set up an online petition calling on South Gloucestershire Council to protect the site.

The petition also asks for Filton and Patchway to be promoted as a centre of excellence for the aerospace world providing high value skilled jobs.

The campaign is in response to a position statement produced by South Gloucestershire Council, which states the 142-hectare site could take up to 3,500 new homes.

The report was written after BAE Systems announced the company planned to close the 100-year-old airfield by the end of next year.

The local authority launched a six-week public consultation on its proposals for the site, which included housing, employment opportunities, enhancing public transport and improving the road network, as well as schools, open spaces and community facilities.

Filton Labour councillor Adam Monk said: "Labour Group does not accept that the airfield should be developed and has made this position crystal clear in our submission to the consultation, which has been passed on to the government-appointed inspector."

He added: "We need to show not only that local people care but also that the airfield can have a future."

South Gloucestershire Council was told to write its Filton Airfield Position Statement by a government inspector currently reviewing the authority’s Core Strategy, its planning blueprint for the next 20 years.

The council received 88 comments from the public and interested parties regarding its revised position statement on the airfield, which have now been forwarded to the government inspector.

BAE Systems said it needed to sell the airfield because it was no longer operationally viable for commercial, civil, business or recreational use. It hopes to submit a planning application by 2013 and has already had talks with developers such as Redrow, Persimmon and The Mall.

To sign the petition to protect Filton Airfield visit www.sglabour.org.uk/airfield-petition 

For more information on South Gloucestershire Council’s position statement or its Core Strategy visit www.southglos.gov.uk 

Source:  http://www.gazetteseries.co.uk