Tuesday 24 June

Historic military flying at Duxford will be seriously impacted by Hanley Grange eco town warns Imperial War Museum

The Imperial War Museum at Duxford has warned that the proposed eco town at Hanley Grange will “significantly restrict” aircraft movement in and around Duxford airfield in Cambridgeshire.

Duxford is the base for the Europe’s largest collection of flying historic military aircraft and attracts 4 million visitors a year from all over the world.

The Imperial War Museum’s Board of Trustees has opposed plans to develop an eco town less than 2 miles due east of the Duxford runway in a formal submission to the Department of Communities and Local Government.

The Trustees say the proposed Hanley Grange development “will directly impact (Duxford’s) standing as a centre of historic aviation operation and its ability to achieve long term sustainability”

“Any local developments that curtail, or limit flying operations and obstruct the objective of the IMWD being a sustainable branch of the Imperial War Museum cannot be supported.”

The Trustees are calling on the Government to step in to ensure “that the site at Hanley Grange will not be progressed any further in the eco-towns programme”.

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Notes:

* The Imperial War Museum’s letter and submission to DCLG is attached

* Cambridgeshire County Councillor Tim Stone who is Chairman of the Duxford Airfield Management Liaison Committee has also issued a press release on this today.

* Duxford is acclaimed as “the finest and best preserved example of a fighter base representative of the period up to 1945 in Britain.” It began as an RAF training school in 1918. In 1924 it became a fighter base. In 1940 Douglas Bader was posted to Duxford and soon established his “Big Wing” which saw formations of 3-5 squadrons being sent to disrupt Luftwaffe raiders in September 1940 at the height of the Battle of Britain.