Village alarm over skid-pan at old airfield

The former air base in Defford used to be leased by QinetiQ, the global defence, technology and security company, which has bases across the country, including Malvern.

QinetiQ had a contract with the MoD, operating a ground station for satellite communications until the contract was awarded to another company in 2004.

Now the company has moved the majority of business and staff to its Malvern site, and transferred the lease to West Mercia Constabulary, which has expressed an interest in using the site as a training college.

QinetiQ was fully privatised last week, before then it was part privatised in 2001, meaning that any site it occupied was no longer exempt from needing planning permission. An application for a Certificate of Lawful Use will be considered at Wychavon District Council's development control committee meeting scheduled for today.

This is a document to state what the site has been used for and is currently used for, setting a benchmark for future planning applications.

West Mercia Consta-bulary will not be making an application until the outcome of this legal process is known.

A police spokesman said: "We would not wish to speculate as to the outcome of our ultimate application or to comment on elements of the lease. We have always been totally open about our general proposals for the site and have never hidden the fact that we intend to use part of it for a skid-pan as an integral element of our on-going advanced driver training programme."

To produce a certificate, Wychavon needs evidence of previous uses of the site.

Defford Parish Council disputes some of the evidence submitted, arguing that the site is not under continuous use.

Letters submitted by the parish council said: "This is a highly contentious application.

"The parish council,

with considerable support from the people of the parish object to this application in the strongest possible terms."

It has also expressed concerns about noise generated at the site.