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

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:

The site was a RAF base which closed in 2004.

It is perfectly true that Llanbedr was once an RAF station, but this was so long ago that I cannot find anyone who remembers exactly when that phase of its existence ended. For decades it has been operated by series of contractors. The Snowdonia Society do not even seem to have taken the trouble to find out how the airfield has been used in the past, or the scale of operations that have taken place there.

On the other hand the authors of the campaign page do seem to think that this is worth mentioning:

Llanbedr has a 1.4 mile runway suitable for the largest jets.

This is true, but again it gives a wildly misleading impression about Kemble’s intentions. The long runway was built at the height of the Cold War so that V-Bomber squadrons could use Llanbedr as a dispersal base in the event of a nuclear attack. Those days are long past, and the only reason for mentioning the length of the runway seems to be to reinforce the impression that Llanbedr is about to become a major airport. There is absolutely no reason to suppose that any such thing will happen.

During the week after the Snowdonia Society launched its campaign over 1200 people in the area (a very significant slice of the population) signed a petition welcoming the news about the airfield getting up and running again. But if the Snowdonia Society has already lost the battle for hearts and minds within the Snowdonia National Park, they do seem to have some support elsewhere:

The support of the Council for National Parks and our colleagues in the Brecon Beacons and Pembrokeshire Coast is greatly welcome at such a difficult time for those who care about Eryri.

It is reasonable to wonder what information these organisations had at their disposal when they decided to join the campaign. Did they rely on the Snowdonia Society for this? Are they really aware that there has been a busy airfield at Llanbedr for decades, with only a brief hiatus of four years while the WAG found a new operator? What were they told about Kembles’ plan? And why is the Campaign for the Protection of Rural Wales (CPRW), a far more influential organisation than any of those mentioned, not included in the list of campaigners. When I spoke to the director yesterday, he told me that he was still trying to find out what the situation is. This would suggest that he is putting little credence on the Snowdonia Society’s version of events.

Alun Pugh is an experienced politician who, until he lost his seat in the last Welsh Assembly elections, was a minister in the Welsh Government. It is reasonable to suppose that he has a sound understanding of the processes of government and the legislation that relates to it. So the following statement is very surprising:

We are alarmed that Welsh Ministers appear not to have fulfilled their legal obligations under section 62 of the Environment Act. So far, our Freedom of Information requests have been blocked.

The Freedom of Information Act requires that a response must be provided to the applicant within 21 working days. Failure to comply with this condition is a serious matter and can easily be reported to the Information Commissioner who will intervene. However the act also requires that a request for information must be clear, unambiguous and specific. So if a vague and badly framed request for information is received, the agency concerned is entitled to ask for clarification. This cannot be described as blocking an application; it is part of normal procedures under the Freedom of Information Act. If the Welsh Ministers have contravened the act by withholding information, then it is open to the Snowdonia Society to report the matter to the Information Commissioner, but this does not seem to have happened.

Lastly, the campaign page wheels out the oldest weapon in the activist’s arsenal, a threat of court action:

We are considering the possibility of a judicial review.

I understand that anyone who is contemplating this vastly expensive and risky kind of litigation is warned by their lawyers that they must expect legal fees of at least £250,000 pounds [see note below]. There is no upper limit. The Snowdonia Society claims to have 2500 members, so this would amount to a minimum £100 for each member. Such a threat may sound intimidating on a campaign page, but is it credible?

A court of law will not be convinced by vague talk of an airport that is really just an airfield, or activist’s suspicions that because a long runway has been built for a purpose that no longer exists, it will suddenly be used by large airliners that, for some unfathomable reason, wish to visit one of the most sparsely populated parts of rural Wales.

The rest of the page is taken up with links to carefully selected media coverage of the Snowdonia Society’s campaign with titles like ‘Anger over commercial flights – The Independent’, ‘Airstrip could give Grand Canyon style Snowdonia flights – Western Mail’, and ‘Airport plans spark concern – Daily Post’. Presumably the intention is that by visiting these links, members will be able to familiarise themselves with the issues that underpin and justify the campaign. In my next post I’ll be considering whether the media coverage that the Snowdonia Society is directing its members to is partial, unrepresentative and misleading.

Note: Since writing this post, I have spoken to another lawyer who considers that it might be possible obtain judicial review in this case for between £50,000 and £100,000.

Update 25/05/2008: The Snowdonia Society have updated their campaign page since I posted this article.