Tenure & Ownership
An airbase for £1?
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- Monday, 17 May 2010 08:49 Tamsin Morris Hits: 447
It sounds too good to be true - the Macrihanish airbase on the Kintyre peninsula has been valued at the princely sum of £1 by the Scottish Government valuer. For the Machrihanish Airbase Community Company (MACC), who want to buy the airbase (see previous article), that sounds ideal. But is it?
As is so often the case with these things, there's more to it than meets the eye. In reality, the airbase comes with significant liabilities, including cleaning up residual contamination of the ground. Whilst that should be done by the Ministry of Defence, most governments don't have a great track record on adhering to the polluter pays principle. The site requires significant investment and MACC's own assessment is that the airbase requires around £990,000 of capital investment.
MACC now need to conduct a ballot of local residents to ascertain if there is community support for purchasing the airbase. Securing a 50% yes vote will allow them to take forward the development of a business plan to see if purchasing the airbase is a viable option.
If you want to know more about the airbase and the ongoing developments, have a look at the MACC website.
