Building work can start on new-look Carlisle Airport
Last updated 12:40, Tuesday, 31 March 2009
The £25m plan to redevelop Carlisle Airport and run flights to London and Europe has cleared another hurdle.
Planning consent has been officially released by Carlisle City Council, meaning the Stobart Group, the company behind the scheme, can now exercise its option to buy the airfield and start work.
Due diligence is currently being carried out before the deal is signed.
Release of planning permission was delayed until the council received a legally-binding document from Stobart promising to improve the runway and passenger terminal at the site.
That was to avoid the project becoming a purely commercial move to relocate the Eddie Stobart haulage company at the site.
Airport director Richard Gordon said: “Things are moving. Nobody has ever got this far in developing the airport so we are in unchartered territory. It’s great news for Cumbria.”
Stobart must now come to an agreement with Gordon Brown, who farms land needed for the scheme. He says that, under the terms of a lease granted to his father in 1962, he cannot be evicted until March 2011.
Under the redevelopment plan, passengers could soon board a plane at Carlisle and be in the centre of London in under one-and-a-half hours.
Flights would operate between Carlisle and Southend Airport, which Stobart also owns. A railway station will be built soon at Southend, which will see trains running on a high-speed link to the site of the Olympics and London’s Liverpool Street station.
A 387,500sq ft warehouse will also be built in Carlisle for road haulier Eddie Stobart, a four-storey office block shared by Eddie Stobart and Stobart Rail, a chilled dock, gatehouse, canteen and parking for 339 cars, 46 lorry cabs and 96 trailers.
