Threat to Britain's airfields
When Jonathan was contacted by the director of the UK's leading aviation publication LOOP who told him that new planning proposals could see the countryside concreted over for houses he immediatley stepped into action. Jonathan contacted the national media and, as a result, within hours the Deputy Prime Minsiter's office promised to review the wording of the planning proposals.

DAILY MAIL 18-2-2006.
Prescott may concrete over cricket pitches and airfields for housing
Village cricket pitches, airfields and golf courses could be concreted over as part of John Prescott's plans to build a million new homes, it emerged yesterday.
The Deputy Prime Minister's department is trying to push through planning rules that will make it easier to build on brownfield sites. In rural areas, these can actually be green areas with only one small building - such as a sports pavilion or airfield control tower.
MPs and environmental groups condemned the "cheap trick" and warned it could have devastating consequences. Critics said the move flies in the face of Labour's pledge to protect the Green Belt.
At the moment, redevelopment can usually happen only on the part of the land where there has previously been a building, protecting the rest of a site from developers. But the paragraph safeguarding the green area has been quietly removed from proposed new planning guidance. The new policy would protect open spaces such as parks and playing fields in urban areas, but not those in the countryside.
In rural areas, any site with a small building surrounded by open space, such as cricket and football pitches and even churchyards, could be a target for developers. Local authorities could reject plans for housing estates, but developers could use the new planning regulations to appeal in court.
The changes are contained in a consultation document issued by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, which oversees housebuilding. Existing planning regulations say of brownfield sites: "Where the footprint of a building only occupies a proportion of a site, of which the remainder is open land, the whole site should not normally be developed to the boundary."
This key paragraph has been removed from the new guidance document called "Planning Policy Statement 3". People have only until February 27 to object. Tory spokesman Caroline Spelman said: "This is a licence to build on green fields. Mr Prescott seems single-handedly to be transforming the British countryside."
LibDem Sarah Teather said: "This is yet another sneaky attempt to build on our countryside, when there are plenty of brownfield sites we should be developing first. More than 700,000 empty properties that could be redeveloped.
"Simply changing the definition of brownfield is a cheap trick that does nothing to help regeneration or protect our green fields."
Mr Prescott wants to build 1.1million affordable homes across the South East over the next ten years. He has already been accused of "environmental vandalism" after it emerged that building on Green Belt land has soared 60 per cent since Labour came to power.
The Campaign to Protect Rural England called the move "extremely worrying" and added: "We are in danger of urbanising the countryside and destroying its qualities."
A spokesman for Mr Prescott said the removal of the key paragraph was "an editing matter", but conceded the new guidance might need to be changed to put it back in. He insisted: "There has been absolutely no change in policy." back to list