Dispute over airport house

Press, 22 February 1977, Page 5

Dispute over airport house

The Ashburton Borough Council has asked the owner of a house being built near the Ashburton airfield to stop construction for two weeks while it investigates' ways of recompensing him; should he have to move the structure. The council is worried that the house may • hamper future development of the airfield Mr D. J. Williams started work on the foundations of ! the building in September. 1975, on his own land, which fronts on to Seafield Road. The road is also the southern boundary of the; airfield and the uncompleted; house stands almost directly; tn line with the most used runway. Soon after construction; started, the council concluded that housing development on the perimeter of the airfield could jeopardise; chances of attracting larger aircraft in the future. How-1 ever, it found that the build-> ing site had been cleared by! the Civil Aviation Division I of the Ministry of Transport and that Mr Williams was; legally entitled to build almost where he wished. Negotiations between the Borough Council, the Ashburton County Council (the borough and county jointly administer nearly 40 ha of

i the airfield) and Mr Wil-; ■.liams resulted in Mr Wil-' ■ liams being asked to resite > the foundations of his house, i which would have cost ; about S3OOO. ; Mr Williams agreed and ■ offered to pay SlOOO of this i provided that both councils did the same. The borough put up SlOOO but the county refused. It said that it had no legal right to ask Mr Williams to move. Having reached a stalemate and having been faced' I with a 14 per cent increase , in building costs, Mr Wil-; . liams resumed building on ['the original foundations. i A meeting of the Borough [ Council last week discussed a proposal to pay the county's share of resiting ' the foundations. Councillors ' said that any future resiting '. would cost more once the house had been completed. . The Mayor (Mr D. O. Digby) said that nothing ! about the airfield would be ; clear until an airport auithority had been established. The council decided ; to look into past agreements ' with the county and to con- ' sider the legal requirements for setting up an authority. 1 It asked Mr Williams to stop building for two weeks pwhile this matter and the; question of resiting costs; was investigated.