The leaseholder at Shoreham Airport has promised repair work on the listed building will begin within two weeks.

The promise was made after a highly charged meeting about the airport on Monday night.

Tim Loughton, MP for East Worthing and Shoreham, slammed Brighton and Hove City Council as partially responsible for the airport’s crumbling Grade II*-listed art deco terminal building and hangar.

He blamed joint freeholders Brighton and Hove City Council and Worthing Borough Council, as well as leaseholders Albemarle Shoreham Airport Ltd (ASAL), for the delay in refurbishments.

He said: “Brighton and Hove City Council has been the most uninterested in the airport.”

The claims were made at a meeting hosted by the Shoreham Society at the town’s Ropetackle Arts Centre, which the city council and ASAL did not attend.

Mr Loughton said ASAL’s “feet would be held to the fire” – with the threat of a million pound fine written into its contract if it did not repair the buildings soon.

Jonathon Candelon, managing director of Brighton City Airport, which is in charge of all flying operations at the airport for the next 30 years, said the company was beginning to make a small profit.

In a joint statement, Brighton and Hove City Council and Worthing Borough Council said: “The councils have worked very hard in recent years to ensure the lessee does everything necessary to ensure the airport continues to operate.”

Geoff Egan, who serves on ASAL’s management committee, said he was only made aware of the meeting at short notice. He insisted repair work would begin on the terminal roof within two weeks and said the company was proud of the progress it had made and was not aware of promises made by previous managers.

 

Petition on community asset plan:

A PETITION has been set up to protect Shoreham Airport.

Jemima Bland, chairman of the Friends of Shoreham Airport, urged people to sign up at the meeting if they were interested in trying to register the site as a community asset. So far, more than 250

people have signed up.

Ms Bland, who is also the Liberal Democrat’s parliamentary candidate for East Worthing and Shoreham,

expressed concerns about separate developments planned nearby, which could affect the site and put it at risk of flooding.

She called for a coherent plan for the entire area.

During the meeting Neil Parkin, leader of Adur District Council, and James Appleton, the council’s head of planning, insisted a new defence scheme would ensure the airport was no longer situated

on a floodplain.

Richard Hayward, who owns an aircraft at the airport, said businesses and individuals who use the site may be interested in investing in its future but so far have not been approached.