Call for government help to reopen city airport

The leader of Plymouth City Council has written to Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander asking for government support to reopen the city's former airport.

Councillor Tudor Evans said he wanted to explore any "emerging opportunities" to support aviation after the airport shut in 2011.

The Sutton Harbour Group, which has a 150-year lease on the site, had deemed the airport no longer viable and previously proposed building housing on the site. The council, freeholder of the site, is currently taking legal action to try and regain the lease.

The Department for Transport (DfT) said it would be for investors to determine whether airports reopened.

In the letter, seen by the BBC and the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Evans said the site could contribute to the city's future strategic transport needs.

He said he wanted to make the government "aware of the potential".

"Business links are really important, as I've said many times the airport should not have been closed in the first place," he said.

"What we've got now is a situation where we can't have it exactly as it was before because the permissions to fly from there have been extinguished.

"It would be open on a different basis - it would be private aviation and not scheduled flights, but still provide business links which is what's really needed."

Evans said the land at the airport could also be used to help reach net-zero targets.

"There's a lot of work going on in research at the moment into alternative forms of aviation," he said.

"What it's about at the moment is securing that land and securing that facility for the future so that future councils can make decisions and can use it."

DfT said the UK aviation market predominately operated in the private sector and investors determined the future of airports.

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