Very briefly, some diary dates for the public meetings.

Our normal meeting venue is the Future Inn at Derriford. Meetings take place on the last Tuesday in the month commencing at 6:15pm.

The next meeting dates fall as follows:

- Tuesday 26th February

- Tuesday 26th March

- Tuesday 30th April

- Tuesday 28th May

We hope to see you there.

VIABLE

Tudor Evans has now provided us with a deadline for public letters addressed to David Cameron.

On Thursday 23rd August, 2012, VIABLE campaigners handed over a staggering 37,861 signatures to the city council, the largest petition in Plymouth’s history.

Over the course of the past 6months, the working group has constructed several maps showing the locations of signatures and a breakdown of UK regions where postcodes have been collected from, documenting every signature, at the time of handing in the petition, we had collected a signature from every UK postcode.

Of the 37,861 signatures that where collected by the working group, 27,000 where of a Plymouth postcode, which equates to roughly 10.1% of the Plymouth population. Of these 27,000, 6,000 where from the PL6 area around the airport site. A copy of the .PDF’s can be found on the below links, thanks to Dan Gaston for the compilation of the maps:

International Support

National Support 2

At the time of handing in the petition, the following article was publishing in the Evening Herald:

“A petition of 37,860 names has been handed to leader of Plymouth City Council Tudor Evans calling for Plymouth City Airport to be reopened.

The airport was closed last year after Sutton Harbour Holdings said it was not able to make the site work.

Campaign group Viable has created the petition and is working to have the site reopened.

Cllr Evans has called on groups to come forward if they are interested in operating the site, but said the council can not offer help towards the running costs.

If an operator cannot be found the council will consider the future of the land.”

The group plans to have a procession down Royal Parade at 11.30.  We will meet in the car park outside Café Rouge opposite St Andrews Church and continuing down Royal Parade to the Council House. From here, Cllr Evans, as well as a variety of media groups will be waiting to collect our petition of over 25,000 signatories. It is our intention to make an as bigger impact as possible and so we invite you to come and join in support of saving our airport.

This is without a doubt the biggest petition that Plymouth have ever seen, lets also make it the biggest gathering of supports that Plymouth have ever seen. 1200, outside the Civic Center in Plymouth.”  Please feel free to carry a banner saying “We Want Our Airport Back” or “Plymouth Wants its Airport Back”  Hope to see you all there,

Unfortunately however, the team didn’t win the Volunteer Team of the year award, although they where presented with a rather smart engraved trophy as a thank-you for their efforts this year. Thanks to Maddi Bridgeman and a big well done to the team!

The event gave the group an opportunity to meet other nominated volunteers from the City, who have been working equally as hard to provide a better future for the people of Plymouth.

Given our increased presence in the City recently with bus adverts and recent news coverage, its been decided that our petition will be officially handed to the Council on 23rd August 2012. Exactly 1 year after the notice of non-viability was signed.

The e-petition is now upto 2,306, although this is fantastic, once finished, this petition will be sent of to the goverment instead of our local Council & names could be irretrievable. Can we please ask that anyone who has signed the e-petition or has yet to sign a paper copy of the petition, signs our new one below. This will allow us to collect names and include these in the final petition count,

VIABLE e-petition

The next public meeting of VIABLE will take place on the 29th May, Future Inn, 1815pm. We look forward to seeing you all there.

The Plymouth City Airport site might benefit from council protection to prevent houses being built, it was reiterated at our public meeting last night.

Viable, the group fighting to reopen the airport, held a packed meeting at Future Inn where Cllr Ian Bowyer, cabinet member for finance, was invited to speak and answer questions.

“We are trying to protect the site by removing it from the Seaton and Derriford Action Plan for future expansion,” he said.

“We have taken it out. It will remain categorised as an airport.”

Sutton Harbour Group (SHG), which operated the airport on a 150-year-lease from Plymouth City Council, shut it in December saying it was not economically sustainable

The company’s lease allows it to sell the land if it closes the airport. The council would take 75 per cent of the proceeds.

In August, the council’s Cabinet backed the closure after SHG had produced two consultants’ reports which said no one wanted to run the airport or flights, and not enough businesses used the airstrip to make it economically viable.

A campaign group, Viable, hit back with a business plan to reopen and run the airport.

Cllr Bowyer said: “We need a mature and informed debate on the matter and I feel many people are only getting half the picture on this. I will take messages back to the council and we will talk to Viable via the chair, Raoul Witherall.

“I don’t want to see houses built all over the site,” he added.

Viable’s vision is to extend the runway. They are running a petition in support of the airport which now has 13,000 signatures.

But Cllr Bowyer said: “This is not a bucket and spade airport and it never will be – the runway isn’t long enough. An airport is important to the city but it has to be viable. I cannot make any sweeping promises – our financial position is tight.”

He said the council could not raise the £30million needed to invest back into the airport. This would mean raising council tax by a third for everyone in the city, he said.

Full story here

PUBLIC MEETINGS (6:15 pm Future Inn):

• 24 APRIL
• 29 MAY
• 26 JUNE

As always, please invite all of your friends and colleagues and we look forward to seeing you all there!

Click Here

Please keep the petition to 10 signatures a page, one side only and ensuring that the first line of the address and post code are completed. That makes the petition valid and easier to count, you can return any completed fill sheets of petitions to the address listed on the bottom of the sheet, or alternatively bring them along to the next public meeting. Thank you.

From the link below, you can also obtain a copy in .PDF format of our airport design plans constructed by Dan Gaston at VIABLE.

 VIABLE Airport Plans

Have questions? Please don’t hesitate to contact us on info@viable.org.uk