Durham Tees Valley Airport reveal findings of public consultation

Durham Tees Valley Airport has published the results of the two-month public consultation over its plans to secure the future of the airport and maximise its contribution to the regional economy.

Airport strategic planning director Peter Nears said the results of the consultation, which showed welcome support from for the proposals in the draft Master Plan, were encouraging and all of the feedback would be taken into account in the work now underway on finalising the proposals for development of the airport to 2020 and beyond, creating up to 3,800 new jobs, with a further 450 during construction phases.

The Master Plan focusses on maximising the potential of the whole DTVA site, repositioning the Airport to focus on the business needs of the region and broadening the base of aviation related activity on the site.

This will be enabled by new developments on the north and south sides of the airport runway to establish DTVA as a leader in aviation related business.

This will build on existing activity at the airport in, for example, aircraft engineering, dismantling and recycling and lead to the creation of a multi-modal logistics centre to maximise the employment potential of the airport’s landholding.

Leisure destinations accessible via scheduled services to Amsterdam Schiphol Airport will be promoted alongside business services through marketing activity and the airport terminal will be remodelled.

Northside development proposals include a mixture of offices and residential (250/400 dwellings), with associated community facilities and an extension to the on-site St George’s Hotel.

Development on the Southside, which would be accessed by a new link road, comprises a logistics and business park and additional aviation support facilities, including a new apron and associated hangars.

During the consultation process over 1,400 hits were recorded on the dedicated website, around 900 people attended a series of consultation events and briefings and submissions were received from over 130 individuals and organisations.

Key find in the consultation report include:

• Over 70 per cent of respondents supported the vision and objectives set out in the draft Master Plan.
• 98 per cent believed that international air links to a ‘hub’ airport are important.
• 87 per cent supported plans for a business park and other proposals for job creation, including potential development of the ‘Southside’ area.
• 90 per cent supported the expansion of general and business aviation facilities, including maintenance, repair and recycling activity.
• 60 per cent agreed that the airport should play a part in the further development of local communities by providing for mixed use development, including residential and improvement of local facilities.

Mr Nears said: “We are very grateful for all those people and organisations who took the time to study the proposals and give us their views—and their concerns. The majority of the feedback was positive and supportive, but obviously there were questions raised about certain aspects which we will now consider very carefully in drawing up the final plan.

“It is important to stress that the whole objective of this process is to reposition the airport in such a way that we can develop a viable business model and investment strategy for the long term.

“Few airports, even the largest, can survive on revenues from passenger traffic alone and many have established wider development platforms to diversify income sources to enable re-investment in airport services. The airport has land assets, which provide the development opportunities we must pursue if we are to improve the whole DTVA operation.”

The finalised Plan is expected to be published in late March or early April. The Master Plan and the consultation report can be viewed on-line at www.DTVA-Master-Plan.co.uk.