Monitoring of Activities at Retford (Gamston) Airport

Thankyou for your email this has been forwarded onto the relevant department requesting that they reply direct to you
Regards
Cathie

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Dear Bassetlaw District Council,

The Retford Times, 10 June 2010, in an article titled "Planning
application rejection leads airport chiefs to increase number of
training flights," an un-named district council spokesman is quoted
as saying:

"We can confirm that the council will continue to monitor
activities [at Retford (Gamston) Airport] to ensure they comply
with the requirements of the existing permission."

1. What is the Council's policy to "monitor activities" at the
airport and how are these activities carried out?

2. How many times, and with what results, have the activities of
the airport been "monitored" since the last permission change?

3. What penalties are available to the council if the activities
are found to be in breach of the current permissions?

Yours faithfully,

Garland Hopkins

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Acknowledgement letter attached.

Regards
Lisa Taylor
Freedom of Information Officer
Bassetlaw District Council

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Dear Bassetlaw District Council,

The Retford Times, 10 June 2010, in an article titled "Planning
application rejection leads airport chiefs to increase number of
training flights," an un-named district council spokesman is quoted
as saying:

"We can confirm that the council will continue to monitor
activities [at Retford (Gamston) Airport] to ensure they comply
with the requirements of the existing permission."

1. What is the Council's policy to "monitor activities" at the
airport and how are these activities carried out?

2. How many times, and with what results, have the activities of
the airport been "monitored" since the last permission change?

3. What penalties are available to the council if the activities
are found to be in breach of the current permissions?

Yours faithfully,

Garland Hopkins

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Please find attached my response to your FOI request.

David Armiger

Dear Bassetlaw District Council,

The Retford Times, 10 June 2010, in an article titled "Planning
application rejection leads airport chiefs to increase number of
training flights," an un-named district council spokesman is quoted
as saying:

"We can confirm that the council will continue to monitor
activities [at Retford (Gamston) Airport] to ensure they comply
with the requirements of the existing permission."

1. What is the Council's policy to "monitor activities" at the
airport and how are these activities carried out?

2. How many times, and with what results, have the activities of
the airport been "monitored" since the last permission change?

3. What penalties are available to the council if the activities
are found to be in breach of the current permissions?

Yours faithfully,

Garland Hopkins

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I took the information about formal complaints from the records retained
by the Planning Enforcement Officer.

We record all duly made complaints received by the department in order
for them to be investigated. It is possible that other complaints were
received anonymously, however these are not formally recorded and
therefore I have no details of how many such complaints are received.

As your question related to breaches of Planning Control I responded on
the basis of Planning Complaints. Could you therefore confirm whether or
not you wish me to provide details of any complaints made about noise
issues at the airfield as for the reasons set out previously, this are
not treated as Planning issues.

David Armiger

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17/07/2010 09:59 >>>
Dear David Armiger,

Thank you for your response to my Freedom of Information request,
dated 24 June 2010.

In reply to my question "What is the Council's policy to "monitor
activities" at the airport?" you state:

"Officers will respond to concerns raised by the public about any
possible breach of Planning controls at the airport. However you
should be aware that this must relate to the provisions of the
existing permission for the site, which relates principally to
hours of operation and the size of aircraft that may use the
airfield in the permitted hours. As a result, monitoring will
relate to these issues."

Please confirm that the Council's -policy- of monitoring consists
-solely- of recording and responding to concerns raised by
members
of the public and not, bearing in mind Retford (Gamston)
Airport’s
past record, carrying out any form of periodic check to verify
their compliance? Given your reply to my second question,
detailed
below, it would appear that no proactive monitoring has been
carried out by the Council in the past 10 years.

In reply to my question "How many times, and with what results,
have the activities of the airport been "monitored" since the
last
permission change?" you state:

"... in the past 10 years we have only received 2 formal
complaints
about the airport, both of which related to building works".

Please confirm that you have -no- records of -any- complaints
made
about hours of operation, size of aircraft operating through the
airport, or noise made by aircraft operating through the airport.

Yours sincerely,

Garland Hopkins

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I have double checked with colleagues and have had confirmation from
Environmental Health that they have no formal records of any noise
complaints relating to the airfield. They have however had some
correspondence with the local Parish Council, although this was related
to matters of clarification rather than complaints.

Given the regulations relating to aircraft noise it is our
understanding that the general practice in recent years has been for
residents to take such matters up directly with the airfield operators.

As indicated previously the current permission for the airfield places
no noise controls on the operators, whilst it was proposed to introduce
a condition that would enable monitoring to take place through the
recent application as you will be aware this was rejected at Planning
Committee.

David Armiger
Head of Community Prosperity
(01909) 533187

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