COURT RULES THAT AIRFIELD CAN BE SOLD
The High Court has upheld a Ministry of Defence decision approving disposal of the former RAF airfield at Kemble, near Cirencester, on the open market as surplus to requirements.
Former owners of the site and an association of companies, Kemble Heritage Group, which occupies premises at the airfield, challenged the MOD’s decision that it was under no obligation to offer the land back to its former owners and was entitled to sell the land by tender on the open market.
Dismissing the challenge, Moses J said that the rules required the MOD to consider the whole of the land that it wished to dispose of and not separate parcels of land. There was no basis upon which the decision could be set aside.
R v Secretary of State for Defence, ex parte Wilkins and others Queens Bench Division: Crown Office List (Moses J) 19 June 2000.
Guy Roots QC and Philip Petchey (instructed by Norton Rose) appeared for the applicants; David Elvin QC (instructed by the Treasury Solicitor) appeared for the respondent.
PLS News 20/6/00
