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Plymouth Airport: Marjon University backs Sutton Harbour Group plan to build on land
The city’s disused airport site has no future for aviation and should be built on, says the new head of Plymouth Marjon University. Professor Claire Taylor, who took over as vice chancellor at Marjon this month, said the neighbouring 113-acre plot would suit an “interesting, creative and brave” mixed-use development including housing.
She said Plymouth has access to an airport at Exeter which is less than an hour away and the north of the city is in need of facilities as its population, the university and Derriford Hospital all expand. Prof Taylor said the university has yet to be approached by the airport’s long-lease holder Sutton Harbour Group Plc (SHG) but would be keen to be involved in planning the future of the land.
She said: “We have not been in formal discussions but we are keen to see that site developed and we would like to be part of shaping something on our doorstep. When the time is right we would like to be part of those discussions and shape the land going forward.”
SHG recently said it is preparing plans to build houses on the site and wants to submit a planning application before the end of 2023. The AIM-listed company has said the site is earmarked for redevelopment to enable “needed land for expansion of the neighbouring Derriford Hospital and Plymouth Marjon University.”
Prof Taylor said Marjon wants to see the land, which has been mothballed since 2011, developed. She said: “Our preference would be for it to be developed. We don’t see the future being for an aviation hub.
“Our connection to the world is through digital. It does not sit well for me to be having an airport on the periphery (of the city) and there are other airport facilities not far away. And we have a rail connection into London.
“It would be a big ask to bring back an airport in that environment. We want to be developing a healthy and robust part of the city and enhance it.”
She added: “Our preference would be for a mixed used development, and for something interesting, creative and brave. Our preference would be around a mix of housing, whether for family housing, social housing and perhaps student housing. We know there is housing demand.”
The airport has been disused for more than 11 years since AIM-listed SHG triggered a so-called “Armageddon clause” enabling it to stop flights if the airport was deemed uneconomic. It had operated the airline Air Southwest from 2003 to 2010 when it was sold to Eastern Airways. But the new owner ceased flights in late 2011 and SHG then shut the airport.
The company has an unexpired 135-year lease on the land with a right to renew for a further 150 years. It owns some of the freehold land but the vast majority is in the lease, held by a wholly-owned subsidiary known as Plymouth City Airport Ltd.
In 2019 planning inspectors stalled development for five years, reserving the land for aviation use via the Plymouth and South West Devon Joint Local Plan. In September 2022 SHG put a price tag of more than £27m on the site and said its value as development land would be even more.
In April 2023 it was revealed that a bid had been made to buy the airport at a “fair price”. FlyPlymouth, the company set up with an aim of reopening the airport, said it has offered to acquire and operate the airport on commercial terms.
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