SHG explains plan to put houses on airport

RESTRICTION PREVENTING WORK IS ALMOST AT AN END

- WILLIAM TELFORD

THE company which owns Plymouth's mothballed airport site is refining a masterplan for the site which would see it turned into a housing estate.

Sutton Harbour Group Plc said it wants to build on the 113-acre patch at Derriford and "integrate" it into surrounding neighbourhoods.

A report to the firm's investors said the AIM-listed company is pressing ahead with a vision to build different types of houses on the land, alongside business and "institutional" buildings, with green space too.

The airstrip has been disused for nearly 11 years since SHG, which has a long lease over the land, triggered a so-called "Armageddon" clause, enabling it to stop flights if the airport was deemed uneconomic.

The Derriford site has been disused ever since, and SHG later produced a plan to turn it into a mixeduse housing-led "garden suburb" estate called Plym Vale, but planning inspectors stalled development of the site until 2024 via the Plymouth and South West Devon Joint Local Plan.