Gloucestershire Airport given £15m to refurbish runways

Gloucestershire Airport will see one runway close as part of the work

Gloucestershire Airport is to close one of its runways and refurbish the other two at a cost of £15m.

The cost of the runway works will be met by Gloucester City and Cheltenham Borough Councils, who jointly own the airport as an arms-length company.

The north-south runway will close and a new business park will be built there, called the Cheltenham Gloucester Exchange (CGX).

Two runways have mostly been out of action since October 2019.

The main runway's "deteriorating" condition is now thought to be 25 years past its design life and in need of repair.

Work at the airport, based at Staverton, between Gloucester and Cheltenham, will pay for runway resurfacing, improved draining, new LED lighting and to ensure it continues to meet Civil Aviation Authority guidelines.

Peter Hibberd, non-executive director and board chairman, called it "the most important thing" to happen to the airport in the past 30 years.

"All the people flying in and out know the runway is not brilliant.

"They are safe, but they need a lot of looking after which has not been cost-effective as of late," he added.

The authorities' investment plans are pinned to aspirations for the area to become a hub for cyber-businesses.

Its hoped this will support a planned business park on land near intelligence base GCHQ.

Gloucester City Council leader Richard Cook added: "We are doing this as we move out of the Covid era and we really want people to feel confident about what we can deliver."

As part of the agreement, the airport is handing rental income of £650,000 a year from the Meteor Business Park to the two local authorities.

Mr Hibberd also said the CGX business park will replace the lost income from transferring Meteor business park to the councils.