End to airfield bike sites?

Plans to reclassify airfields for planning guidelines could mean an end to many venues for riding and racing away from public roads.

The changes will see the sites redefined as ‘Brownfields’, and any airfield with a building on it could be sold for development as a housing estate, and local councils, businesses and individuals would be powerless to object. That affects anyone currently hiring airfields to practice riding as well as wheelie and stunt schools.

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The change will be part of Planning Policy Statement 3 (PPS 3), but there are claims it has appaeared as a change within an Annex and wasn’t part of the full consultation document.

To register your views before February 27, 2006 you should contact your local MP. To find their details, click here. And copy any letters or emails to: Office of the Deputy prime Minister, Planning Policies Division (2), Zone 4/J5, Eland House, bressenden Place, London, SW1E 5DU, or email: pps3consultation@odpm.gsi.gov.uk.