Shropshire airport idea raised by councillor

Shrewsbury Town Council’s finance and general purpose committee has said Shropshire Council's 'Economic Growth Strategy' lacks ambition.

The strategy outlines Shropshire Council's plans to attract and generate business in the county for the next five years.

Today, town councillor Peter Nutting said the possibility of a commercial airport in the county should be explored as a way of linking Shropshire with the world and to raise much needed funds.

He said: “The thinking is if you go from Liverpool south to Bristol and then from the east of Birmingham to the Welsh coast, there is no commercial airport and that is a large chunk of countryside.

“Shropshire is looking for transport links with the world and I think the potential is there to investigate whether it would work in Shropshire.

“I have no set ideas on how big or small it should be or where it should be but I think it is worthy of putting some money into.

“I think it is more like a 20 year plan. I am not expecting next year to have planes landing.

“I would like to think, in future, it would be a reasonable sized commercial airport, something like Liverpool, but that is a long term aim.

“One thing that could be looked at is whether RAF Cosford could be a dual airport, part commercial part RAF.

“It is well linked to Wolverhampton and the Black Country and has links to the motorway networks.

“In a couple of years time Shropshire Council will rely on business rates to pay for their spending.

“Airports and associated buildings like warehouses create huge amounts of business rates that could then help support Shropshire’s economy.

“I regard the idea in the same vein as the University, it is something that is a long term project, it is not an overnight thing.

“Even now, the university has lots of work to do to improve numbers, but we started with a seed of an idea but in the long term it will be really good for the economy.”