Gloucestershire Airport's future
Comment by Ian Mean, Business West Gloucestershire director
For as long as I can remember the very existence of Gloucestershire Airport has been something of a political football.
Why? It is jointly owned by Cheltenham Borough Council and Gloucester City Council.
And now, after years of financial heartache, they have come forward with the big decision to sell it. I am not surprised.
READ MORE: For Sale: Major county airport, with room for expansion
The 350 acre site is now being marketed by Savills with a price tag estimated at least £25 million.
The expensive game of poilitical football over Gloucestershire Airport Ltd been played out yearly as each of the councils owns 50 per cent of the airport.
It has been a consistent financial drain on the two councils.
For some years as an editor, my personal view of the airport was that it should be sold and the land possibly used as a site for a major new hospital serving the whole county – plus badly needed housing.
But since then I have changed my view from being on the board of GFirstLEP which – with the two councils – has put almost £10 million of capital investment into the airport.
And there are now dozens of successful companies on the site with two thriving business parks of around 700 000 square ft and plans for an additional 320 000 sq ft of business space on development land.
So, the big issue for me from the proposed sale is the detrimental effect it may then have on the Gloucestershire economy.
Gloucestershire is a major player in the increasing growth of aerospace with companies in this sector already on the site and surrounding areas.
Could the answer be the development of an aerospace manufacturing and research hub on the airport site to drive this expanding growth sector?
With additional investment from a buyer, that idea might fly.
But with the pressure to build more housing to cater for the influx of families due to the Golden Valley digital project, housing and development companies could now get involved in the sale.
The political football that is Gloucestershire Airport will surely be going into extra time
