This is something I knew very little about until recently, when signage, petitions and campaigns appeared locally against the building of a new housing development on Wellesbourne Airfield.
George Osborne gave a speech recently encouraging the building of new housing developments and utilising brownfield sites (ie previously derelict land, or former industrial but non contaminated land).
But recent rules by the Government reclassified what is classed as a brownfield site, and this includes former military airfields, either disused or in use by flying clubs. All of a sudden the owners of the land have the ability to make a killing by selling up to property developers, regardless of the number of small businesses that operate from an Airfield, or facilities provided to the community.
In Wellesbournes case there are a number of fixed wing and helicopter schools, commercial driver training, motorcycle training, one of the UK's largest outdoor markets, with 500+ stalls, and various other businesses.
Plus it's home to a museum and also the historic Vulcan, which draws in the crowds every year as it blasts up and down the runway.
Here it is motoring up the runway last Sunday (yep I love the Vulcan )
There are a number of airfields that have either fallen under the developers diggers or are about to.
You can't blame the land owners, who would turn down the opportunity to sell prime building land, but are some things worth more than money?
Do we have to sell, destroy or scrap all of our heritage in the name of progress, or affordable housing?
Or is this just another take on the "not in my backyard" argument?