This is the letter we have sent to Mr Robert Goodwill, Aviation Minister following up the recent articles published in the Northern Echo and the Darlington and Stockton Times last week ! Dear Mr. Goodwill, I am writing to you in your role as Aviation Minister and as a result of an article in The Northern Echo today (23rd October). There are many people in the Teesside area who are suspicious of Peel Holdings and their running of Durham Tees Valley Airport :- Dear Mr Goodwill, I run the “SAVE Teesside Airport” facebook page which was started in February and now has had over 4,400 “likes” and hundreds of comments from people wanting to see their local airport rejuvenated with low cost flights to popular destinations. During the same period Middlesbrough Councillor Chris Hobson started a petition to the Prime Minister also asking for support for the airport and it attracted 3,500 signatures. None of these people are convinced that Peels master plan for the future of the airport is the right way forward. Peel has carried out public consultations on its plan and claims that there is widespread support for it. In fact the published results of the consultation showed that only 900 people attended the “master plan events” and about 250 attended the public presentations. Whether this 250 is part of the 900 is not clear. Only a total of 132 people responded, just under 12% of those who attended the meetings. Out of those responses Durham Tees Valley Airport says the 71% agree with the “Airports vision and objectives” i.e. just 94 people out of 1,150. DTVA also points out that 98% of respondents “agree that international air links to a hub airport are important” and use that statement as if it supports the plans. It does not. It does mean that of the few people who responded most want links to hub airports, but three flights a day to Schiphol do not represent a vibrant and flourishing airport. Had DTVA asked whether anyone wanted to fly to destinations elsewhere than Aberdeen and Amsterdam from their local airport there might have been a lot more people responding it total. DTVA then asked “Do you agree that the airport should play a part in the further development of local communities by providing for a mixed use development including residential .....” In spite of the leading way of wording this only 60% agreed with the statement – just 80 people, or 7% out of 1,150. Although some of the people who signed the petition may also have supported the facebook page it is clear that there are a substantial number, many more than responded to Peels consultation, who do not agree with the master plan and are unhappy at Peels stewardship of the airport. Since Peel bought the airport in 2002 passenger numbers have fallen from a high of 900,000 a year in 2006 to a woeful 161,000 in 2013, a 76% reduction, when during the same period, and at a time when until recently air passenger traffic in the UK generally was increasing by 5% per annum, passenger numbers at Newcastle grew by 29% (3.4 million to 4.4 million) and Leeds Bradford’s numbers rose by a massive 120% (1.5 million to 3.3 million). Teesside’s decline looks like due either to bad management or a deliberate policy. Peel says that it is not viable to run cheap flights to popular destinations and chase passengers in this way, partly because there is a lower propensity to fly in the North East than in other parts of the country. Perhaps so, but there are almost 8 million people flying from LBA and Newcastle every year and, I suspect, another million or so using airports further afield such as Manchester and even Stansted to get where they want to go at prices they want to pay. Aiming for a one third share of that market would put up to 3 million passengers a year through Teesside and might work, but Peel says not. However, at the same time the owner of another regional airport, Liverpool, laid out its strategy, quoted in Airportwatch (a web based airport monitoring group) as recently as January 29th 2014 as follows: “Liverpool John Lennon Airport wants to win over the 1 million Merseysiders who currently fly from Manchester Airport each year. The loss making airport said it was “absolutely” certain that it will secure new bank banking facilities before the March 31 deadline. The ambition to lure local passengers away from Manchester was part of an overall strategy aimed at restoring passenger growth at Liverpool airport, which lost over 1 million passengers in 2013, compared to 2011. Liverpool airport says it has conducted market research that shows Merseysiders would prefer to fly from Liverpool rather than Manchester, if flights were available. But they are not. “People said they wanted to keep money in the Liverpool economy” (by taking cheap flights abroad to spend their holiday money elsewhere??). In recent years, JLA has lost market share to Manchester as its rival began targeting no-frills airlines like Easyjet and Ryanair that have traditionally been Liverpool’s biggest customers. Liverpool wants more low cost destinations.” The owner of that airport is Peel. Peel now wants to sell airport land for the development of up to 400 houses to raise £25 million. We think that there are a number of reasons why selling land for non-airport related, residential development is not a good idea.. Peel claims that the land is surplus. It may be now, but would definitely not be if the airport grew to compete with its regional rivals, but once the land is sold it has gone forever. If you look at the master plan (it is on the web) you will see that the housing is clustered around the terminal and car park, completely restricting any possibility of expanding either in the future. In addition, putting 400 homes right next to the terminal will simply result in 400 objectors to any plans to expand the airport or increase the number of flights in the future. The land should be retained for airport-related uses. Peel claims that it needs to raise £25 million to pay for the development of infrastructure at the airport and will use the money to build new hangers. In a document recently discussed at Stockton councils cabinet meeting “Scrutiny Review of The Future of Durham Tees Valley Airport” Professor Nears of the Peel Group claimed that there is pent up demand for hanger space (para.4.37). Peel has had planning consent for 1.9 million square feet of warehousing and industrial space at the airport since 2004. It is a company with a net worth of £6.6 Billion, yet it claims it needs to sell land to raise just £25 million, less that 0.3% of its assets. If there is demand for airport related businesses to locate at the airport then given that Peel already owns a huge amount of empty land and has planning consent for a huge amount of buildings it seems odd that no building can take place until some land is sold for housing. With its asset base and land holdings it has ample resources to carry out development on land it already owns or to use as security to borrow money. There seems to be no need to sell land to facilitate development. The problem is that many people are suspicious of Peels intentions for the airport. It has a track record in respect of Sheffield Airport that people see being followed here (please see the Wikipedia entry for Sheffield Airport”); it has put forward a master plan that does not make sense for an airport supposedly aiming to increase air traffic; it is pursuing that master plan in spite of the fact that it is supported by at best only 94 people; it dismisses the strategy that people of this region want of getting low cost flights to popular destinations, yet at the same time pursues that aim as the best way forward at another of its airports, and it has made statements in the past about development plans at the airport, very few of which have materialised. People are therefore rightly concerned about the current master plan and see the proposed housing development as the beginning of the end of the airport. I am sorry to have gone on at such length but I feel that these points and peoples concerns about them are important. Any help or support that you can give in getting the airport thriving again would be greatly appreciated. Yours sincerely, Please SHARE and pass the word on ! :-)
Posted on: Sun, 26 Oct 2014 09:11:48 +0000
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