“More homes are needed and they are more important.”

“Very well expressed Cabot. Building permission should be revoked and the airfield bought by compulsory order at the market rate for an airfield and handed back to the people to whom it really belongs. Then perhaps when the new businesses that use the airfield become established they could pay the money back.

The government of the day, the Conservatives, stupidly gave it away to what was to become BEA Systems without stipulating conditions to secure its future. It is Corporate greed that is dictating this policy and it is shameful that nobody with the authority is willing to do anything to secure the local economy not to mention preserving over 100 years of aviation history at Filton.

This present Conservative Government is quite happy to ring fence what they like to call foreign aid but we know that some of it ends up feeding corruption in various countries around the World and even Tony Blair has been reported to have touted for some of the ''aid'' contracts on behalf of 'that' Bank he works for in America. So for the government to claim that there is no money for such a gesture would be ludicrous.”

“I'm sure pretty much every struggling farmer in the land could make a tidy windfall if they just redeveloped their farms for housing. After all, it's "just a commercial decision" for them. So why do we not let them? And why do we let BAE? Answers on a postcard....”

“Fully agree - Filton should be set up properly to serve as a second passenger hub and also as a major distribution centre for the South West.

What I would suggest is the compulsory purchase of the airfield, coupled with investment to build large warehouse/distribution facilities for the likes of DHL, UPS and all the other international courier networks. Offer them low rents to locate their distribution centres there and hey presto, you have created a world class distribution hub with plenty of new jobs being created.”

“This is more complex than a potential job saving or job creation exercise, and when politicians get involved you know there are probably ulterior motives.

I think it is more to do the unsuitability of locating a major airport within an urban area and the national strategic importance of investing in an airport in the South East of England (London's long talked about "4th Airport").

Look at the difficulty there has been in getting expansion of the London airports. Politicians and business want it and so there has been no tactic to run these down and brand them unprofitable.

Face it, Bristol is not London and Filton is not Bristol's airport. It is plonked right in the middle of a residential area. No point in being Canute about it.”

“Thank you for your comment A_mushroom but you completely misunderstand the situation. There is NO proposal to create a commercial passenger airport at Filton. What we want to do is retain it as a General/business airfield as it has been for decades. The ulterior motive you refer to is basically that big business i.e. BAE can make six times as much selling it for housing than they could selling it as a working airfield and politicians listen to big business not us.

The housing around the airfield is an advantage not a problem. If you doubt this consider London airport. At the end of the war it was decided to move this from built up Croydon to a little place in the country called Heathrow, where hardly anyone lived. How many houses are there around Heathrow now? The reason for this is that people want to live near where they work.
On the question of Heathrow's capacity where Filton could help would be in taking "non-hub" activity such as aircraft maintenance away and thereby freeing up landing slots. We have the only airfield that can take the A380 apart from Heathrow and Manchester, we have the workforce and we have the Brabazon hangers. Isn't this worth investigating?”

“there are a couple of others that can take A380s, but the space for hangars, the local workforce and expertise, the rail links for heavy parts, and the calmness of not having a queue of civil flights coming in give Filton an advantage. Houses close to a non civil aircraft also is good for private pilots who want to be able to fly their own aircraft locally for cheap as hobbies or teaching, for airshows where locals can see all manner of unusual airaft every year or so for free, etc.

housing is important, but the north fringe really cannot handle it. Traffic is past saturation already and local massive housing developments not long ago still are having issues with lack of jobs, not having enough local services, etc. Houses don't all have to be dumped in 1 single place, they should be spread out, small amounts in lots of areas to minimise the local impacts to any area and to allow a slower, more gentle growth. There are also strategies used by europe which combine hosues with countryside without ruining either need. Only here do we believe in fields of green or fields of brick.”