as per the title… some places used by cadets and/or staff to go;
Hullavington
Nelson Wardroom
Kneller Hall
RAF Mildenhall
amongst others
Gutted.
I’m still an air cadet, but now also URNU. As a student at Portsmouth uni, we use the Nelson Wardroom every Wednesday for dinner and drinks. This is absolutely cutting news!!!
I believe MOD Feltham is also one of them - a cadet site in my wing - outrageous!
Outrageous because cadets meet there or because of the jobs going elsewhere?
MOD Feltham in London
Interesting. Anyone who knows what goes on there from other non military units will be wondering what’s happening to the incredibly busy teams who are based there.
1 Like
RAF Barnham. Used for housing in the future to help the Gov’s aim of providing houses.
Part of it is a scheduled monument. Lots of listed buildings. Other parts of it were used for chemical weapon and filling station. Good luck at getting the land certified as safe to build on without legal challenge.
Lodge Hill has been on the list for ages. I imagine the Gov will somehow be managing to lift the SSSI marker off the land now by stealth. Or not…
Outrageous for both. I’m just on the cadet bandwagon considering they’re my connection to the base.
Sadly things in any metropolitan area will pick up a premium and be top of the list for disposal to aid the treasury. The ULAS & London URNU building is an excellent example which went for over £50m. Mildenhall could be interesting as it’s been known for many years that Marshall want to move out of Cambridge (so they can sell the airfield, presumably for housing - for the amount they could sell Cambridge airport they could probably buy several new sites!). With Wyton, which had been mentioned a decade or so ago, also becoming a housing estate, Mildenhall presumably becomes their target.
Chaz you may have better info than me, but I’d heard the reverse: that Marshalls had turned down an offer to move to Alconbury on the grounds that they were perfectly happy where they were and didn’t want to see the airfield turned into housing (as I believe it has been shown on the Local Plan as such for some time). So Mildenhall wouldn be no more tempting. I prefer my version of the story - it shows the Marshall family in a better light…
I believe that Cambridge City council have wanted the land for at least 4 decades, but the company/family, as tmmorris says are happy where they are. There were suggestions that they would move to Mildenhall, but that option was rejected due to airfield access restrictions placed on the proposal by USAF. The suggestion of a move to Alconbury is not a rumour that holds too much water - that said over the past 20 years there has been at least 1 new rumour a year as to the locations future use. The least popular locally was a suggestion of it being a commercial airfield with 24 hr flights.
With the USAF leaving Mildenhall may become a better proposition. Like it or not, Cambridge is a very limited airfield in some respects, and I’d have thought they may be certain factors to “pull” Marshalls away with the estate available.
My info is no better than anyone else’s here. I hope they stay too. The blue sky situation may have them operating two sites, with larger aircraft at one and allowing a more light commercial operation at Cambridge.
It depends on what you want to “do” with the airport.
If it is to remain primarily as a maintenance base, with occasional commercial traffic, then it seems to work out fine at the moment. Might change if they wanted to get A380s in!
Even if you look at the population catchment area, for commercial flights, I doubt if Cambridge could compete with the likes of Stansted or Luton. If things move to Mildenhall, transport links are not so good. Cambridge to Stansted is about 30 miles/40 mins driving - & also has good coach connections.
Cambridge also has some active flying clubs & a good number of executive jet movements. Would these be so viable for Mildenhall? Maybe not.
this was debated in parliament, video here: http://parliamentlive.tv/event/index/c77d6671-b81f-4ad3-97b4-66c99783d9f5 skip to 15:28:40