Plan to start building homes on airport site
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PLANS have been submitted which would see houses and a new road built at the site of Plymouth’s former airport – but the main runway retained for another five years.
Long lease-holder Sutton Harbour Group Plc (SHG) has announced plans for a phased development of the 113acre site.
The AIM-listed company said the first phase envisages 345 homes and a new link road bordering the site being constructed. Then, in the next three to five years, Phase 2 would see the main runway kept while “institutional, business and housing development” takes place on other parts of the plot.
In a statement to investors, SHG said it had made a pre-submission planning application, and said: “This approach will allow further time of five years for a potentially financially viable general aviation proposition to materialise.” Then, Phase 3 would set out alternative uses for the remainder of the site “in the absence of a financially viable general aviation operation” and includes building on the runway area.
The company, in its announcement to the Stock Exchange, said: “As previously notified, the masterplan will set out three phases of development. Phase 1 comprised 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.” It added: “Phases 2 and 3 will include an additional mix of uses including a range of social and market housing types.”
Meanwhile, SHG said it is continuing to take legal advice following a letter received from Plymouth City Council in February alleging breach of the lease. It said: “The company will provide an update on this matter in due course.”
The former airport land is currently protected under the Joint Local Plan (JLP), but Plymouth City Council, West Devon Borough Council and South Hams District Council have been considering whether the Joint Local Plan – adopted in 2019 – still provides an appropriate framework for the area’s development. Earlier this month council leader Tudor Evans said the site should continue to be protected from development.
The former Plymouth City Airport has been out of use since December 2011 when SHG triggered the Armageddon clause enabling it to stop flights if the airport was deemed uneconomic. It had operated the airline Air Southwest from 2003 to 2010 when it was sold to Eastern Airways.
But Eastern Airways ceased flights in late 2011 and SHG then shut the airport. The company has an unexpired 135-year lease on the land with a right to renew for a further 150 years.
It owns some of the freehold land but the vast majority is contained in the lease held by subsidiary Plymouth City Airport Ltd. In September 2022 SHG put a price tag of more than £27m on the site and said its value as development land would be even more.
‘This approach will allow time for a potentially financially viable general aviation proposition to materialise’