Historic building to be demolished as final links to aerodrome to go
ONE of the last remaining parts of Woodley’s historic aviation history is set to disappear following a successful planning appeal.
Last month, an appeal to the government’s Planning Inspectorate by HE2 Reading 1 GP Limited against the decision of Wokingham Borough Council was allowed, and planning granted for the demolition of the Adwest building on Headley Road East in Woodley.
It will be replaced with five flexible light industrial, general industrial, and storage units, with ancillary offices, associated car parking, new access, and landscape of the site, adjacent to Headley repair of Spitfire. planting. Road East. Following Miles Aircraft’s
The original application was Amy Johnson, the first demise in the late 1940s, made in September 2021 and female to fly solo from London production was taken up refused in June 2022. to Australia, and Douglas Bader, by Handley Page, ultimately
The site and buildings the famous Second World ceasing in 1962. were formerly part of the War fighter pilot, flew at the The appeal notice noted: Woodley Aerodrome, and were aerodrome. “The buildings have since been associated with manufacturing The inspector said it was altered and used for different and maintenance under Miles unclear what connection they engineering purposes, including Aircraft, including the Hawk, may have had with the appeal production of prefabricated the Hawk Trainer II and the 500 buildings. ‘Airoh’ houses which helped Miles Master 1. During the war, the mitigate the Britain’s post-war
Growth and expansion of aerodrome was used by the housing shortage; the first plain the site led to the construction Royal Air Force for pilot training paper office photocopier, the of GNH_Wokingham_265x160_LK6-CN9-BE1_Jan2024_DEXP the headquarters building in including by using Miles’ 20x3 12/01/2024 ‘Copycat’; 09:00 and mass Page production 1 1939 in the north west corner aircraft, and manufacture and of the first Biro pen.”
The application was consulted at Wokingham Borough Council in 2021, where 213 resident objections were received in addition to objections from Woodley Town Council, Matt Rodda MP and four Wokingham Council ward members.
Seven letters of support were also received.
The application was presented to the Wokingham Planning Committee on May 11 2022 with a recommendation for approval.
It was deferred to a subsequent meeting on June 8, 2022, to allow for a site visit to consider the site context and heritage impacts.
It was subsequently refused with the notice saying: “The proposal would result in the demolition of the buildings at Headley Park, Headley Road East, Woodley, a non-designated Heritage Asset which forms the remaining structures of Woodley Airfield.”
A petition to attempt to save the building had gathered almost 5,000 signatures