Gloucestershire Airport flies into controversy – again!
Ahead of an announcement about its future, Gloucestershire Airport is once again taking flak for soaking up public money – with one owner alone admitting to spending £200,000 of it on consultants.
Dear reader,
Welcome to Monday’s edition of The Raikes Journal. Regular readers will know Monday’s editions are open to everyone, with a paywall only falling on them after two weeks.
It’s the Thursday reads and much more likely the Friday full editions that go out with a paywall over the main stories as we seek to make sustainable what we do - real journalism about Gloucestershire.
If you saw Friday’s edition (not paywalled last week, as it happens!) you’ll have seen news of this digital magazine’s partnership with events and social media specialists Social & Social.
This is big news, as far as we’re concerned. This is our push to establish a dynamic live platform to give voice to the business community of Gloucestershire. The curtain should go up on that new stage in the autumn, with three round table events planned.
You can read the full launch article here.
Today, we revisit the political hot potato that is Gloucestershire Airport. Even as the co-owners - Gloucester City Council and Cheltenham Borough Council - seek to offload the site and the rest of us wait to find out its future, news has broken of hundreds of thousands of pounds of public money going to consultants.
Very best regards,
Andrew Merrell (editor).
For every person you refer to The Raikes Journal’s email service you get points towards a free membership allowing you to see beyond our paywalls. Please do sign up (free or otherwise), send the referral link to a friend or colleague, and help us grow.
Diary Dates…
Monday
More than 160 business people are expected at an invitation-only event at the home of Gloucester Rugby, Kingsholm, from 5pm this evening. This is the launch of a book co-written by Gloucestershire businessman and the founder of leadership development specialists QuoLux, Dr Stewart Barnes: Developing Financial Leadership in Small-Medium Businesses. More here and a full report to come.
Tuesday
Tapas Tuesday. WSP Solicitors’ legendary lunchtime business networking in Gloucester at Sebz Tapas, Northgate Street. From noon to 2pm. You need to book in advance. More here.
Wednesday
How to successfully apply for a patent. Expert in all things patent and design-related, attorney Florian Bazant-Hegemark, will be on hand to educate businesses at The Growth Hub in Tewkesbury from 10am to 1pm. More here.
Thursday
Stroud - Small99’s People, Planet, Pint™: Sustainability Meetup. No pitches, PowerPoints of panels, apparently. This is simply a great opportunity to meet up to chat about sustainability. Due to take place from 7.30pm at Stroud Brewery & Taproom. More here.
Bishop Fleming is due to host its annual finance seminar at Cheltenham Racecourse from 8.30am to 11am. Aimed at business owners and senior finance managers. From 8.30am to 11am. More here.
Friday
Cheltenham Business Networking is due to meet at the Leonardo Hotel Cheltenham, from 6.45am to 8.45am. More here.
Event showcase: Impact of Renters’ Rights Bill on investors could be significant
Practical tips of managing your investment, especially ones that could avoid significant impact on that nest egg, can be worth their weight in gold. Following on from its January seminar, experts from law firm Willans is inviting you to the next instalment of its ‘managing your investment property’ series, alongside a guest speaker from Crowe UK LLP.
Bethen Abraham, a solicitor from Willans, said: “With the changes proposed to tenancy terms, notices, landlord obligations and updates to property standards, the impact of the Renters’ Rights Bill on landlords and property investors could be significant.
“At our upcoming seminar, we will be providing an overview of some of the key reforms and legal updates to educate landlords on the proposed changes. We look forward to answering questions from landlords and discussing the Bill's progress.”
Due to take place at Pittville Pump Room, Cheltenham, the event is tailored to established buy-to-let property owners or those considering entering the market.
Abraham will be joined by Willans LLP’s other landlord and tenant specialists, Nick Southwell and Katie Charlton and the guest speaker from Crowe UK LLP Accountants, Nick Latimer. He will discuss capital tax planning and structuring for property, picking up on capital gains and inheritance tax issues following the latest Budget, and SDLT aspects.
Topics covered will include current landlord legal requirements/responsibilities, the pitfalls to avoid, legal updates in relation to the Renters’ Rights Bill and tax on property investment, including recent legislative changes. When you book your tickets you can also submit questions for a Q&A with the panel. Due to take place from 5.30pm for a 6pm start with the talks and Q&A sessions ending by 7pm followed by 30 minutes of networking. More here.
Your briefing notes…
📈 Customer expansion into European markets is driving significant growth at a Gloucester-headquartered electronic security integrator. Monatrix, which has expanded 35 per cent in the last 12 months, said it was initially focusing on serving clients in Ireland, Paris and Budapest. It’s added six new team members and scaling up in other areas in order to deliver. More here.
🎉🎉🥇 A special congratulations to the names from Gloucestershire to appear in the King’s Birthday Honours. They include chair of the Royal College of Nursing Foundation, Professor Jane Frances Lovely (Jane Cummings), from Cheltenham (DBE) for voluntary services to Nursing and to Health and Social Care; chief executive, Homes England, Peter-Robert Denton, from the Cotswolds, (CBE) for services to Housing and to Major Urban Regeneration; Caroline Jane Cotterell, director of Natural England, from Stroud, (CBE) for services to the Natural Environment; Stroud resident Phil Smith, director general of the Incorporated Society of British Advertisers, (OBE) for services to the advertising and marketing industries; Tim Gwilliam, former Forest of Dean District Council leader, (MBE) for services to the community in the Forest of Dean; Sarah Jane Steel, chair of trustees for the National Day Nurseries Association and CEO of The Old Station Nursery Group, Cheltenham, (OBE) for services to Early Years Education; the chief executive of Brain Tumour Support, Tina Mitchell Skinner, from Berkeley, (MBE) for services to People Affected by Brain Tumours and Gloucestershire's temporary chief constable, Maggie Blyth, who has been awarded the King’s Police Medal (KPM) for her work tackling violence against women and girls and her commitment to protecting vulnerable people. David 'Syd' Lawrence, the former England and Gloucestershire Cricket Club bowler also received an MBE, as did musician Steve Winwood, from Cheltenham.
🍽️🏁 A new restaurant is due to open in Cheltenham this week. Chef patron Ram Jalamsutram will be opening the doors of Le Petite Bar & Grill in Charlton Kings from 6pm on Thursday 5 June for a special launch party.
* The Raikes Journal is a community interest company. Everything you read by us is made possible by our incredible Founding Partners: QuoLux, Willans LLP, Gloucestershire College, Merrell People and Randall & Payne, our sponsors Hartpury University and Hartpury College, our Founding Members and wonderful paying subscribers.
If you subscribe and invite friends to The Raike Journal you will earn rewards towards complimentary membership (three referrals will get you one month, 10 will get you three months and 25 will win you six months).
If you upgrade to paid you’ll be part of this CIC too. We are dedicated to delivering quality journalism for Gloucestershire, to championing the county, in particular its businesses, charities, education and training providers, and to helping create an even stronger community. If you upgrade to paid you will be able to see past the paywalls often put on our second and third email editions of the week, that lock all our archive after two weeks and lock our rolling Top 100 Businesses in Gloucestershire series. You will be able to comment on our stories too. You’ll be helping make this CIC sustainable to deliver more original articles on our county.
You can sign up to receive your two extra editions a week and see past all our paywalls for just £2.30 a week - or £1.80 a week if two or more people sign up at once. Or go all in and become one of our Founding Partners or Founding Members!
Gloucestershire Airport flies into controversy – again!
Ahead of an announcement about its future, Gloucestershire Airport is once again taking flak for soaking up public money – with one owner alone admitting to spending £200,000 of it on consultants.
By Carmelo Garcia.
After years battling its dual identity – as a business park and working airport with huge potential versus a headache for its local authority owners and ripe for sale – Gloucestershire Airport was finally put up for sale last year.
It’s a situation that looked even until the last minute like it could still go either way, when incoming leader of Gloucester City Council, Jeremy Hilton, seemed to be about to renege of the previous administration’s decision to sell its half.
But in the end the city council stayed true to the deal it had made with joint owners Cheltenham Borough Council to sell the airport, which since 1993 has been run as a stand-alone business and developed as a commercial asset.
We say asset, but the sale also revealed a set of accounts that showed both local authorities have pumped millions of pounds into propping up the operation for some time, potentially eroding the sale value and Gloucestershire Airport Ltd is in debt to the tune of several million pound to boot.
That sale value has remained underwraps.
Read more: Airport hurtles towards March deadline to repay £12 million
Read more: Gloucestershire Airport: What Skyborne’s boss thinks of the decision to sell - and more
And far from settle the argument, the attention it’s receiving had once more plunged those businesses that have invested considerable funds, in some cases millions of pounds, into the airport - and the rest of us - into limbo as we await to see if the new owners will invest further, or whether they thinking ‘housing development’ instead.
It now looks like a buyer has been found, with a closed-door briefing having taken place of council officers, with the detail yet to go public.
What has come to light instead is still more spending by at least one council – more public money spent on an asset which has so far failed to pay back directly.
More than half of the almost £400,000 of taxpayers’ money spent on consultants by Gloucester City Council over the last year was for advice on the planned Staverton airport sale.
City chiefs spent a total of £384,342 on consultants between June 2024 and May this year.
Most of this has been spent on advice and support for the planned sale of Gloucestershire Airport.
A total of £199,566 has been spent on the Staverton site which is jointly owned by Cheltenham Borough Council and the City Council.
The authority has also spent more than £50,000 on property surveys, some £24,000 on housing consultants and just under £22,000 on ecological advice.
Meanwhile £21,504 has been spent on wayfinding signage consultants as well as more than £17,000 each on the leisure provider procurement and land valuation
Some £10,500 was spent on training development, £8,333 on the reorganisation of local government in the county, a combined total of £5,750 on planning and planning policy, £4,300 on IT and £2,538 on the £107m city centre Forum Project.
These figures were revealed at the latest cabinet meeting in Gloucester thanks to a question by councillor Andrew Gravells (C, Abbeydale).
He asked finance chiefs what the authority had spent on consultants’ fees over the last twelve months.
The grand total for spending on consultants between June 2024 and May 2025 is £384,342.
More than half of this was spent on the Staverton airport during that time.
All of Gloucester City Council’s elected members are understood to be having a private briefing on the sale of the airport this month.
They will be told the particulars of the bids for the 350-acre Staverton site.
This is ahead of a special meeting on June 26 at which they will be expected to approve the sale of the site.
The airport, which was established in the 1930s, was put up for sale in October last year and has a guide price of £25 million.
The airport generated around £3.5m in operational income last year and the site will be sold in its entirety.
Airport bosses said the site will be sold as a going concern and the future of aviation will be protected.
This is something council chiefs in both Cheltenham and Gloucester have reiterated as there have long been fears the site could be “run down” and sold off for housing in the future.
By Carmelo Garcia, local democracy reporter for Gloucestershire. carmelo.garcia@reachplc.com