Farnborough Airport Development Plan - The Argument Against

Public Open Meeting - Tuesday 15th September

In July the Farnborough Society were pleased to host a public open meeting at the Aviator Hotel at which Mr Brandon O’Reilly, Chief Executive Officer of TAG, was the guest speaker and told a large audience about aspects of TAG’s development plans for Farnborough Airport in the 21st Century.

This meeting engendered a great deal of discussion afterwards both between the assembled audience and among the Executive Committee of the Farnborough Society.

Since the Society is a  non-partisan voluntary organisation which aims to represent the views of all Farnborough Residents who may wish to join the Society we have now organised an open public meeting at which our guest speaker will be Geoffrey Marks OBE, C.Eng, M.I.Mech.E who will put forward the view against the proposal in its current form.

Geoffrey has, for the last seven years been Chairman of FARA (Farnborough Aerodrome Residents Association).  FARA was born out of a previous organisation (FAG) in 1999, when a  group of residents realised that not enough regard was being paid by Rushmoor Borough Council to the environmental consequences of planning approval.

FARA’s primary objective has been to ensure that Rushmoor acknowledge the environmental and amenity issues that have arisen as a result of its planning permissions granted in 2000 and then to ensure that in determining TAG’s current planning application for an increase in the movement limit Rushmoor give due weight to the further impact that an increase in the level of flying would impose on existing and future communities.

In addition to the Chairmanship of FARA, Geoffrey has spent four years on the Executive Council that oversees the activities of the Aviation Environment Federation.

He is also a member of the Surrey branch of the Council for the Protection of Rural England Aviation committee and the Farnborough Airport Consultative Committee

As a Chartered Engineer who specialised in aircraft engineering Geoffrey has a lengthy history of experience in the field of aviation including flight test experience at Boscombe Down, engine testing at Pystock and working on Anglo French Helicopter Projects before moving on to a series of NATO Tornado projects and finally being awarded an OBE for services in support of the UK’s 1991 Iraq was effort

With this wealth of experience Geoffrey aims to explain to the residents of Farnborough and surrounding areas at the meeting, How FARA have gone about fulfilling their aims so far and the steps we should all now be taking to limit the damage to our environment and the loss of amenity, both in the short and longer term.

We sincerely hope this talk will be of great interest to everybody who has an interest in the environment in which they live, not only Farnborough itself but in the surrounding areas.

Therefore we warmly extend a welcome to everybody who would like to attend the meeting on Tuesday 15th September at 7pm at Farnborough Baptist Church, Queens Road, Farnborough (North Camp) GU14 6DX.

There is plenty of parking in the large car park which can be access from both Lynchford Road and Peabody Road or in the streets surrounding the area of Queens Road.  Please try to park near to the shops to avoid too much disruption to residents in the surrounding houses.