Newquay Cornwall Airport has been chosen to join a national trial looking at how the planning process can be made more efficient.
Cornwall Development Company (CDC), working with airport operator Cornwall Airport Limited and Cornwall Council, has secured £10k of Government funding to progress what is called a Local Development Order (LDO) for aviation-related development at the airport, which is owned by the council.
It is part of a pilot scheme set up by the Government’s Planning Advisory Service to look at potential uses for LDOs, and the airport is just one of ten schemes in the country taking part.
Al Titterington, managing director of Newquay Cornwall Airport, explained: “The LDO is a way of creating a planning framework that allows certain developments on the airfield to take place without the requirement to make an individual planning application for each development.
“Having such a planning framework would be an invaluable tool in helping to deliver our vision of creating an aerospace hub at the airport which will generate high value industry in Cornwall.”
Carolyn Rule, Cornwall Council cabinet member for Economy and Regeneration, added: “The airport is already very successful in attracting aeronautical business to the area which has brought in revenue, investment and much-needed high quality, high-skilled jobs. The Local Development Order could help to facilitate future developments which would greatly benefit Newquay and the wider region.”
The LDO proposal, which has the full support of Cornwall Council’s Planning Policy Advisory Panel, is being worked up by the project services team at CDC.
Miles Carden, who is the Newquay Cornwall Airport programme manager at CDC, said: “Privately-owned airports already have similar planning rights but because Newquay Cornwall Airport is council-owned, we don’t. That puts us at a disadvantage in being able to respond quickly to demands from potential users and investors, so having the LDO would create a level playing field, save considerable resources and improve occupier certainty and confidence.”
The LDO is being proposed in two phases. The first phase would cover inside the airport boundary, and the second phase would cover a proposed Airport Business Park to the south of the airfield.
There will be a public exhibition at St Mawgan Village Hall on Tuesday, February 15 from 2pm to 8pm, outlining the LDO proposals in more detail.
If approved, the first phase of the LDO could be in place by the summer and would last for a number of years.
