A partial sell-off of publicly-owned Shoreham airport has moved closer after five firms expressed an interest in a proposed £30 million expansion.

Brighton and Hove City Council and Worthing Borough Council, who share ownership, offered 33 companies involvement in the 248-acre airport's future. Of those, 28 turned down the chance to take a stake.

Reasons given included the airport being too small and the likely difficulty of winning planning permission to extend the hard runway from 1,000 to 1,200 metres.

A park-and-ride scheme and a new link road from the A27 have been mooted but there are no firm plans.

Environmental activists are angry at the attempt to secure a private sector partner, claiming people's concerns about pollution have been ignored.

The airport has debts estimated at £3.2 million and barely manages to break even each year.

Councillor Don Turner, chairman of the joint authority task group for the airport, estimated a private sector partner would have to invest between £15 million and £30 million.

Yet he was encouraged by the positive response from the five firms, two of whom he described as "major operators" but whose names are being kept confidential.

He also insisted he wanted Brighton and Hove, which has a two-thirds share of the airport, to retain at least a 19 per cent stake when a private partner comes on board.

But he admitted it would be up to the two authorities to decide in future whether to keep any council control at all and ensure the land remained an airport.

The airport has been used regularly for flying since 1910. Britain's first air cargo flight was from Shoreham on July 4, 1911.

The two councils launched a consultation scheme on the airport's future in March last year, prompting concern from people living nearby about increased noise and air pollution.

The two options up for debate were to leave the runway as it is but increase the number of annual flights from 75,000 to 100,000, or to extend it.

Hopes of seeing through the second option faltered when Adur District Council insisted it would oppose any plans for a 1,200-metre runway. Coun Turner said: "In the short term we certainly have expectations of developing the airport with the existing runway. There may be development of the buildings there."

Councillor Keith Taylor, Green Party convenor in Brighton and Hove and a member of the airport management committee, said: "Even though 79 per cent of people opposed lengthening the runway to accommodate larger and more frequent planes, it is that possibility which tops the council's so-called 'investment opportunities'.

"The question that should have been asked is, what do people want to happen to the airport?

"But Brighton and Hove and Worthing councils have dodged the issue and instead asked whether there are companies who'll take a risk to make money by enlarging this airport, despite what locals want."

The five firms' submissions came after the councils issued a marketing document last May to gauge industry interest.

Worthing council leader Keith Mercer said: "The results show we have the support we need in delivering our ambitions for the airport."

A board of six Brighton and Hove councillors and three from Worthing will oversee the search for backing. A formal marketing document is expected to be issued on October 31.

Tuesday September 07, 2004