Llanbedr Airfield: What Dr Lewis of the Snowdonia Society has to say

Posted by TonyN on 06/06/2008 at 4:04 pm Llanbedr Airfield 9 Responses »
Jun 062008

On 22nd May 2008 the Cambrian News published a letter from a Dr David Lewis with the heading, ‘Assembly stubbornly refused to answer our questions’. As Dr Lewis is the chairman of the Snowdonia Society’s Policy Committee, and therefor at the heart of the campaign to prevent Kemble Air Services’ taking over Llanbedr Airfield, it is reasonable to suppose that he would take this opportunity to make the best possible case for the society’s opposition.

Here is the first sentence of Dr Lewis’ letter:

Everyone in Ardudwy would like to see new jobs make up for those lost when Llanbedr airfield was closed four years ago.

Now, at first glance, there is nothing in the least bit controversial here, but who exactly is this Dr Lewis Continue reading »

Is the Snowdonia Society misleading people about Llanbedr Airfield?

Posted by TonyN on 25/05/2008 at 3:14 pm Llanbedr Airfield No Responses »
May 252008

In my last post I considered the information that the Snowdonia Society is using to brief its members on the issues that underlie their campaign to prevent Kemble Air Services taking over Llanbedr Airfield. The statement on their campaign webpage is very short, and gives the impression that a major new development within the Snowdonia National Park is about to take place. In fact Kemble Air Services aviation plans involve no more than the resumption of flying operations, after a gap of just four years in the airfield’s busy 70-year history, on what will probably be a greatly reduced scale.

Now I want to look at the links on this page to press coverage of the society’s campaign. The obvious intention of these is to inform members and other visitors about what is going on.

Here is a selection of headlines on these linked pages: Continue reading »

What the Snowdonia Society say about Kemble's plans for Llanbedr Airfield

Posted by TonyN on 20/05/2008 at 2:08 pm Llanbedr Airfield 1 Response »
May 202008

I’ve been looking at the Snowdonia Society’s website where they have a page devoted to their campaign to prevent Kemble Air Services re-starting flying operations at Llanbedr Airfield.

On BBC Radio Cymru yesterday, the director of the Snowdonia Society, Alun Pugh, assured listeners that he has a mandate from his members for the campaign to derail Kemble’s plans. But for this to be true, it is of course necessary for the membership to have access to impartial and accurate information about the issues. Given the massive support for Kemble in this area, I thought it would be worth having a look at what the society is telling their members about this campaign.

Here is the headline on their page:

Llanbedr Airport – Latest

This seems very strange, as there is no such place as Llanbedr Airport, nor has there ever been. Throughout its long history this establishment has never been known as anything other than Llanbedr Airfield; an accurate description. But I suppose that if you are running a campaign you cannot afford to be too fussy about such niceties as getting a name wrong. If the term airport gives potential supporters the impression that this remote rural airfield is about to become a rival to Heathrow, then why worry about it being thoroughly misleading?

The term airport implies a major centre for air travel, and there is absolutely no question of any such development taking place at Llanbedr.

Next, we find this: Continue reading »

Kemble are unlikely to turn Llanbedr Airfield into an airport

Posted by TonyN on 16/05/2008 at 8:00 pm Llanbedr Airfield No Responses »
May 162008

At another blog, I have been asked the following questions by ‘MH’:

Tony, I have no wish to talk about global warming here, but I would appreciate two things:

1. Can you substantiate how busy the airfield was before? How many flights a day and roughly how big the planes were? Obviously no-one cares about what things were like in the war, but how things were over the 10 or 20 years before it closed.

2. Can you tell what restrictions have been imposed (either through Planning Regulations or as part of the lease) on either the number, size or type of planes that can use the airfield now … or if there are night restrictions?

In the six years between 1998 and 2004, when QinetiQ ceased to operate from Llanbedr Airfield, there were 53,000 aerodrome and 14,000 radar movements. Continue reading »

Kemble Air Services to take over Llanbedr Airfield

Posted by TonyN on 14/05/2008 at 11:55 am Llanbedr Airfield 55 Responses »
May 142008

It’s not often that rural communities get good news these days. Foot and Mouth disease, Blue Tongue, rural poverty and crime, pitifully small farm incomes and the rising costs of transport seem to crowd into the headlines on a regular basis. So it is a pleasure to be able to report some good news for a change.

Four years ago, the airfield at Llanbedr, on the shores of Cardigan Bay in North Wales’ beautiful Snowdonia National Park, ran into difficulties after QinetiQ gave up their lease. In spite of a long and determined campaign to find a new operator it is only in the last week that we have heard that Kemble Air Services is planning to start operations before the end of the summer.

The airfield has been a part of life in Llanbedr for nearly seventy years, so few people alive today can remember a time when it was not part of the community; several generations of some families having worked there. Servicemen who were stationed here when it was an RAF station during and after WWII have married local girls and come to live in the village. Others who came here in the course of their careers have been reluctant to leave an area that had become their home and have settled in and around Llanbedr when they retired.

There is undoubtedly something incongruous about celebrating the contribution an airfield has made to a national park, but Continue reading »

The shepherd, the little girl, and the otters

Posted by TonyN on 28/04/2008 at 12:00 pm The Landscape No Responses »
Apr 282008

Yesterday afternoon, in bright spring sunshine and a cutting northwesterly breeze, I walked along the turf embankments that, for the last two centuries, have bounded the estuary below our house . On one side, lawn-like flats that will soon be ablaze with sea pinks (thrift) ran down to the water’s edge where boats restlessly tugged at their moorings as though eager for the sailing season to begin. On the other side were the level, rather wet meadows, studded with ewes and their new lambs, which the embankments had reclaimed from the sea all those years ago. A network of deep drainage ditches, almost too extensive to comprehend and now neglected and choked with tall norfolk reed, stretched into the distance.

Coming towards me I saw a tall figure, bent under the weight of a half bag of feed, and recognised him as the owner of the sheep. He limped slightly in the way that farmers in their sixties do after more soakings and heavy work than hip joints can stand. When we met he swung the sack to the ground and leaned on his stick while his dog gambolled round us. Evidently he was prepared to stop and chat.

Continue reading »

4 Landscape and History, Churchill and Halifax

Posted by TonyN on 10/01/2008 at 12:30 pm The Landscape No Responses »
Jan 102008

According to the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution, four fifths of the UK population now live in urban areas (here).

valeofyork.jpg
Looking across the Vale of York to theYorkshire Dales courtesy of DocsPics


For most of us, the rural landscape that surrounds the settlements in which we live and work is something to be enjoyed during moments of leisure. We do not depend on it either for sustenance or income, but value it as a place for relaxation, exercise and enjoyment.

The fields, woods and moorland that form by far the largest part of the British landscape still have a significant role in the national economy, but this is no longer an essential element of our prosperity or an essential means of feeding the population. Tourism rather than agriculture is becoming the main business of the countryside. A vast network of country lanes and footpaths provide access to even the most remote areas for anyone who wishes to reach them and the desire to enjoy the beauty, peace and tranquillity that they may offer. This is of unquestionable value to the life and spiritual well being of our crowded homeland, but it is no longer a vital means of sustaining life. In a sense, and for the vast majority, the countryside, and enjoyment of all that it has to offer, is becoming little more than a lifestyle option, to be enjoyed or ignored at will.

Here is a story that throws a very different light on the role of the countryside in our recent past, and illustrates the way that attitudes have changed within living memory. Continue reading »

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