Property firm to submit plans for future of derelict airport
Property firm Sutton Harbour has drawn up plans for the future of the Plymouth City Airport.
The company has announced that it has made a pre-submission planning application to the local planning authority in connection with the development of the former airport site.
Plymouth City Airport Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sutton Harbour, holds a long lease on the site.
There has been a long-running dispute centred on the site and Plymouth Council has threatened the company with legal action.
Last month Plymouth City Council said it was giving airport leaseholder Sutton Harbour Group Plc “one last chance” before starting legal action which could see it reclaim the land.
The authority said it is “disappointing” it has not received assurances it requested in a letter to SHG.
The council had said Plymouth City Airport Ltd (PCAL) was in breach of lease covenants. It said SHG had failed to reassure the council it would comply with its lease for the former Plymouth City Airport site and has now served SHG with a formal legal notice.
Sutton Harbour announced on the Stock Market it has drawn up a masterplan which sets out three phases of development.
Phase 1 includes the delivery of 345 new homes and a new link road bordering the airport site.
Phase 2 – over the next three to five years – will continue to preserve the main runway at the former airport site, and will propose development for institutional, business and housing development on other areas of the site.
This approach will allow further time of five years for a potential financially viable general aviation proposition to materialise.
Phase 3 sets out alternative use of the remainder of the site in the absence of a financially viable general aviation operation and includes development of the runway area.
Phases 2 and 3 will include an additional mix of uses including a range of social and market housing types.
The company also noted that it continues to take legal advice following a letter received from Plymouth City Council alleging breach of the lease.
