Thu Oct 10, 2019 9:48 pm
#1724374
PlaneStupid wrote:Gustosomerset wrote:At the risk of having missed this earlier in the debate (if I have, apologies) - what do people think the owner's strategy really is?
"The Wiltshire Core Strategy (CS) Core Policy 25 supported the principle of new development at the Airfield but sought to strike an appropriate balance between the flying activity and the amenity of the residents of Salisbury."
So the planners are happy in principle for the owners to build new houses - though evidently not as many as he wanted. But the principle of such development is based on a balance with flying activity. Remove the flying activity and you remove any chance of achieving that balance.
Do people seriously believe that the owner is thus undermining the chances of a revised application (at least in the near future) simply in a fit of pique? That seems unlikely to me...
I think a compromise on housing numbers could easily have been achieved that would have mollified the residents and ensured the continued flying at OS. However, the owner - apart from removing 13 hangar homes homes from the original application, which were neither here or there anyway - has refused to negotiate or attempt to come to any form of understanding.
I popped up yesterday to have a look. Admittedly, it was a warm day but the whole place was buzzing with activity around the GoSkyDive operation. People were using the cafe facilities and seemed to be really enjoying themselves. If OS has that sort of captive audience and footfall, why the heck aren’t they cashing in and marketing their ground facilities to help subsidise the operation? In the couple of hours I was there, the Cessna Caravan transporting the parachutists was on the go constantly. Just ONE private aircraft took off. In 2014 there were 95 planes registered there - today there are 25 and yet Compton Abbas has a waiting list for hangarage. Doesn’t make sense.
I dont think so. The fixed costs of a development would have to be shared over a smaller number of homes which could make them uncompetitive. Its the general infrastructure like services and sewerage as well as site clearance etc that needs a reasonable number of homes to make the development work.