Dyson flies into turbulence over jet airfield plans
COMEDIAN David Walliams was chuffed when he was approached by a woman recently. ‘I was walking through the park with my puppy Ernie,’ he says. ‘A lady said, “Cute! How old?” I replied, “Thank you. I’m 47.”’ What a wag.
HIs decision to relocate his headquarters from Wiltshire to singapore caused howls of protest earlier this year.
Now billionaire designer sir James Dyson has provoked further unrest with his plans for developing Hullavington Airfield, a 517-acre former World War II site, six miles from his company’s campus in Malmesbury.
sir James, 71, who invented the bagless vacuum cleaner, intends to build a state- of-the-art hangar to house two executive jets and a brace of helicopters, as part of his plans to convert Hullavington into a research and development centre.
But this has excited opposition from those living nearby. ‘Regular jet and helicopter flights over the village would totally change this lovely part of Wiltshire,’ says one of them, Kate Tanner, in a letter to Wiltshire Council.
Another, David Haines, points out that the airfield has ‘never been used for commercial aircraft’, and warns that ‘ the aircraft will be passing low over farmland, causing distress to livestock’.
‘I cannot understand why an application as important as this has not been more widely publicised,’ adds Haines. Another critic, Richard Giles, says that while Dyson ‘purchased the airfield as a research and development location’, the new proposal is ‘for an aerodrome’.
Requesting ‘greater openness’, he implores the council to consider ‘the impact that this development will have on the community’.
A spokesman for Dyson hurries to allay their fears. ‘Dyson purchased Hullavington Airfield in 2017 and has subsequently restored the dilapidated hangars as part of a £200 million investment in the UK.
‘The airfield is now a base for Dyson’s growing automotive teams. This latest planning application covers the modernisation of the existing runway to enable a small number of private flights associated with managing a global company.’