Tag Aviation has appealed a local government ruling in November that blocked its
application to increase annual movements at the London-area Farnborough Airport from 28,000 to 50,000. The central government’s Department for Communities and Local Government received the appeal on December 7. A public inquiry is likely to begin this year.
The company, which operates Farnborough under a 99-year lease, has appealed on the grounds that Rushmoor Borough Council’s stated “reasons for refusal” were not substantiated by technical evidence. Tag’s legal team has also argued that the council development control committee (which consists of elected politicians) blocked the official recommendation to accept the movement increase that had been made by its full-time planning officials. The appeal alleges that the politicians “failed to take into account national planning and airports policy.”