TG Aviation Post-Hearing Statement
“Our hearing on Wednesday was for an injunction to allow us to use the runway unlicenced in accordance with all the CAA rules until our main case against the airport can be heard. Whereas in London the judge seemed to be coming round to our way of thinking that there would be no cost to the airport for us to do this, in Leeds he stated his opinion that as land owners they would have an obligation to ensure this was carried out safely. He believed this would involve staffing, insurance and council rates all adding up to about £1m. As we do not have this sort of money we could not cover damages to them should we lose the main case which is to prove that our lease gives us rights to use the runway.
He felt that the injunction application should have been filed before the airfield closed but this would have meant covering £10,000 a day losses. He did go on to say that he felt there was a serious case to answer in respect of the rights in the lease and he could see we had been trying to address it with the airport over the last 16 years.
We felt we had no choice but to fight our corner but did not expect it to be such a drawn out affair. The Judge has not ruled on costs yet, but they will be considerable and any donations towards these will be gratefully accepted.
We are down but a long way from out, and are committed to fighting on for our rights under our lease. We have special vouchers available to help support our operation and ensure that we can continue this fight to stop redevelopment of the airport. They start at £25 and have no upper limit. These can be used against flying during their 6 month validity or be allowed to expire, donating the money to our cause. Please let your friends know about these vouchers and get them to give us a call if they would like to support our fight.
We can now confirm our commitment to Pent and Lydd and hopefully improve our facilities at both places. If you need help with travel then please get in touch and we can try and put people together for shared travel. We are flying from Lydd 7 days a week up to 18:45, and are enjoying the into wind runway!
We would like to thank everyone again for their continued support,
Best Regards from all the team at TG.”
– Tasha Girdler
