560 firms support Carlisle airport plan
Last updated 09:26, Friday, 28 November 2008
AROUND 560 Cumbrian businesses have joined a campaign to back a last-ditch attempt to develop Carlisle Airport.
Cumbria Chamber of Commerce has revealed that in a three-year survey of firms on the issue, an “overwhelming” majority back a plan by the Stobart Group to create a passenger and freight hub and relocate the Eddie Stobart haulage empire to the airfield at Irthington.
The chamber has sent the results of the study to Carlisle City Council to demonstrate the strength of feeling in the business community and to ramp up the pressure on planners and councillors to permit the scheme.
Stobart’s revised £20m blueprint for Carlisle Airport is due before the authority next month.
The company’s chief executive, Andrew Tinkler, has warned that the airport will close in 2011 if his plans are turned down, and that 565 Stobart jobs will leave the county.
Chamber chief executive Rob Johnston has sent comments to the city council from 560 businesses which back the scheme.
He said: “It’s clear that this issue is now broken down into two areas:the future development of the airport and the retention of Stobarts in the Carlisle area.
“Over the past three years, the chamber has engaged with the business community (on the airport), including most recently in November 2008 in an independent online survey. The absolutely overwhelming position of these businesses is in support of the development of the airport as being helpful to them as businesses and a real issue in demonstrating that Cumbria and south west Scotland are on the business map.”
He said the airport project was backed by “unprecedented support” from everyone involved in economic development, including the councils, the chamber and other businesses.
Mr Johnston said it was absolutely crucial for north Cumbria to have good transport connections if the economy were to be sustained and developed.
He added: “The airport has been in decline for some years. For many businesses this lack of connectivity to markets and opportunities outside the region has held back growth.
“We believe that Andrew Tinkler’s acquisition of the airport provides probably our last opportunity to make it happen.
“Evidence shows that in areas where there is a successful regional airport, the whole business economy benefits, not just those who use it.
“If one of Cumbria’s most successful indigenous businesses, run by such a high-profile Cumbrian businessman, is treated like this then others must surely be discouraged from considering Cumbria as an area for potential investment.”
Cumbria County Council this week backed the development unanimously. The latest scheme is a watered-down version of plans approved by the city council in April, only to be called in for a public inquiry.
Mr Tinkler then withdrew it. This time, the county council argues, there is no need for an inquiry because the new proposals do not breach planning policy.
A concerted campaign of opposition in nearby villages continues where residents claim the development would create extra traffic, noise and pollution, would endanger public safety and would result in a large industrial site in the countryside.
Mike Fox, of Irthington, who has campaigned against the development of the airport, said: “Whatever is said about the business support for this development, we maintain it is wholly inappropriate for this area.
“This is not an application for an airport, but a relocation of a major business into the countryside. The plan is not transparent, there are many unanswered questions about what is proposed.
“What it would see is a building half the height of the Civic Centre and the with the floorspace of the Lanes Shopping Centre built in the middle of a rural location.
“Connectivity to Cumbria is improving anyway with the upgrades to the West Coast Mainline, meaning will be closer than ever to London by train.
“This plan should be decided on a regional and national level, not locally, where the arguments are manipulated.”
