Last night there was a meeting in Llanbedr Village Hall about Kemble Air Services plans to reopen the airfield. By the time it was over there could be no doubt that Kemble have the overwhelming support of the community, the Welsh Assembly Government, the local MP, the Snowdonia National Park Authority, all the neighbouring community councils and that even the Countryside Council for Wales can find no cause for concern. It was equally clear that everyone was sick and tired of the antics of the Snowdonia Society, which have stalled Kemble’s plans for the last two years.
The fist thing that we noticed as we approached the village hall was that there were more cars around than I can ever remember seeing in Llanbedr before. The second was a rather flurried looking Lord Dafydd Ellis-Thomas, Presiding Officer (Speaker) of the Welsh Assembly, desperately trying to find somewhere to park. For a very small rural community this was obviously going to be an exciting evening.
Inside the hall, the hundred or so chairs were soon occupied. By the time the meeting started there was at least an equal number standing around the edge of the hall and even in the porch because they couldn’t get in.
The meeting was arranged by Llanbedr Community Council, but the chairman for the evening was our MP, Elfyn Llwyd, who immediately made his support for Kemble’s plans clear and introduced Lord Ellis-Thomas, who confirmed that there was wholehearted support from the Welsh Assembly Government too.
Mr David Young, of Kemble Air Services, gave a resume of the problems that his company had encountered over the last two years. An application to the Snowdonia National Park Authority (the planning authority in this case) for a certificate of lawful use was turned down on legal advice at the end of last year. However they have since intimated that, if the application was re-submitted with slightly different wording, it was likely to be approved. The problem was that the Authority were unwilling to explain to Kemble what alterations were necessary. He also pointed out that there was obviously established use of the site as an airfield extending back for seventy years, and he suggested that the requirement to obtain a certificate of lawful use was a measure intended to appease the Snowdonia Society.
He outlined Kemble’s plans saying that their immediate priority was to get the gates of the airfield open again and find tenants for the hangars: perhaps ones involved in aircraft maintenance or the development of UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles). Beyond that they intended to use the airfield for whatever purposes they could within the limits of its previous usage. They fully accepted that, if they wanted to do anything else there, they would have to make an application for planning permission. What they were not prepared to do was accede to the Snowdonia Society’s demand that they should start from scratch and apply for planning permission for an airfield. The delay and heavy costs involved would make the project unviable.
Mr Caerwyn Roberts, chairman of the Snowdonia National Park Authority, responded by expressing surprise that Kemble had encountered problems over the wording of the application for a certificate of lawful use and saying that he had instructed his staff to offer every assistance.
Tony Jones, representing the Countryside Council for Wales, spoke briefly about the importance of various sites on and around the airfield, including one where their are Great Crested Newts[1]. He said that CCW would be advising the planning authority and that he looked forward to working with Kemble to ensure that these sites were protected. There was no indication in anything that he said that the CCW opposed Kemble’s plans.
Throughout these proceedings, every statement in support of Kemble’s plans was greeted by loud, sustained and near universal applause.
Mr Alun Pugh, director of the Snowdonia Society and soon to be the Labour Party parliamentary candidate for the Arfon constituency at the general election, was then given an opportunity to speak. He claimed that the Snowdonia Society were eager that jobs should be created at the airfield and the buildings should be used in a way that was appropriate to the National Park. He gave no indication of any alternative use there might be for an airfield in this area other than aviation. The Snowdonia Society’s only concern, he said, was that a full planning application should be made together with a detailed environmental assessment. He described the application for a certificate of lawful use as a ‘short cut’. At this point the meeting lost patience with him and he had to give up, but not before Elfyn Llwyd had intervened to explain that COLW was perfectly lawful and not a short cut.
The Chairman of the Snowdonia Society, Dr David Lewis who introduced himself as ‘a resident of Llanbedr’, also tried to speak but was inaudible.
Representatives of three neighbouring community councils spoke giving unqualified support for Kemble. A multitude of comments from the floor were, with two exceptions, in favour of the project. One speaker attempted to persuade the meeting that Kemble’s operations at their main airfield in Gloucestershire were subject to widespread protests and petitions. Those present who were aware of the excellent reputation that Kemble has both in Gloucestershire and the aviation industry as a whole disagreed vociferously, and when he changed tack and tried to assert that reopening the airfield would harm tourism in the area the reaction of the meeting became boisterous. Some of the most successful tourist enterprises in North Wales have developed over the last fifty years on land adjacent to the airfield while it was operating at a level that is unlikely to be seen again.
An elegant lady who has lived in Llanbedr all her life complained that reopening the airfield might increase road traffic, evidently having forgotten that until quite recently over two hundred people were employed on the site, and that Kemble do not have any plans or expectations that such a level of activity could be achieved again. Her views failed to find any support.
The meeting finally ended with Mr Pugh of the Snowdonia Society on his feet again attempting to defend his organisation’s actions against a welter of questions, particularly about whose interests he thought he was representing.
When new developments are mooted in small rural communities there tend to be divisions of opinion, and these can lead to acrimony. This was a particularly heart warming meeting as it was clear throughout that the large turnout was a demonstration of near universal support for Kemble’s plans to resurrect Llanbedr’s airfield, which has been a part of the life of the village for as long as most people can remember. Add to that the commitment from the Assembly Government, our MP, the Snowdonia National Park Authority and all the community councils in the area and you have a situation that is near unanimity. Even the Countryside Council for Wales seemed to be unable to find any grounds for concern about the newts.
Before Kemble made a bid for the airfield lease they took the very sensible precaution of consulting the local community councils about likely public attitudes to their plans. Evidently they are a company that prefers to work with people rather than in the face of opposition. The Snowdonia Society took no such precaution before they launched their campaign against the airfield plans.
Let us hope that the reception that their director and chairman received last night will have persuaded them that further attempts to disrupt this project will only do even more damage to the reputation of a society which, until recently, was respected as a useful, objective, non-political influence in the National Park, but is now seen as being irresponsible, self-serving and out of control.
[1] Local rumour has it that these are found only in the firepond on the airfield , and as this population is remote from any other, how they got there is a mystery. The most likely explanation involves a bored airman with an interest in natural history and a jam jar.
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