Airfield protesters need an old-fashioned hero like Biggles

SOME of my old Biggles books turned up in the attic while I was searching for the Christmas decorations.
How I thrilled to the adventures of the World War One flying ace, passed down by my father’s cousin, when I was a child. The illustrations looked dated even then.
Biggles, Pioneer Air Fighter was one I loved. Biggles of the Camel Squadron was another. Whilst checking online that I recalled the titles correctly, I was amazed to see you can still buy a box set.
Well, if the fictional hero’s creator, Captain WE Johns, could see what’s been happening at Old Sarum, at the very time we’ve been paying national tribute to the heroics of his generation, he wouldn’t just be turning in his grave, he’d be looping the loop.
In the next few weeks an application will land on a planner’s desk to build 470 homes around the edges of our historic airfield, which is a conservation area because it is a unique relic of those glory days.
Opposition has been growing, not only to the principle of development on parts of this site, but to the sheer scale of it.
There’s a Facebook group, called Save Old Sarum, with almost 800 members, and an online petition is taking off at change.org. with nearly 700 signatures.
Laverstock and Ford parish council says a conservation area management plan should be in place before any application is approved.
The Wiltshire core strategy says that, too. It talks about development only being allowed if it ‘enhances the historic environment’, ‘protects the amenity of existing residents’ and ‘retains and safeguards flying’.
Residents of Ford certainly don’t feel their amenity is being protected. They are extremely unhappy about the threat to the rural character of their settlement.
The operators argue that development money is needed to sustain the future of flying at the airfield. I haven’t seen a figure put on it.
But the volume of building they are talking about will do far more than keep a dwindling band of weekend pilots (facing stricter controls to minimise noise) airborne. It will make some people exceedingly rich.
And what if Wiltshire Council, in accordance with its own policy, insists that 40 per cent of the new homes are affordable?
If the occupants of social housing have no choice about where they live, how long before they complain about aircraft nuisance?
All three of the main parties’ general election candidates are now taking an active interest in this proposal at the behest of the residents.
My fear is that if this becomes seen as a party political issue it will go to the strategic rather than the southern planning committee, where councillors will divide along tribal lines, a Tory majority from outside the area will nod it through, and the rights and wrongs of this highly contentious issue will never be properly considered.