Yorkshire Air Ambulance forced to quit air strip at Bagby Airfield

The Yorkshire Air Ambulance has also been served with a notice to dismantle its flight crew room, toilet and shower block at Bagby Airfield, near Thirsk, Yorkshire.

A spokesman for Hambleton District Council, which issued the enforcement notice, said the authority was working closely with the charity to find a site for an alternative satellite base.

He said: “This action is certainly not about removing the air ambulance from a base in the Hambleton area.”

Martin Scott, who owns the grass airstrip, has been served with an unprecedented 14 enforcement notices, including stopping the use of part of the runway and ceasing helicopter training and taxi services.

Both the charity and Mr Scott have until December 20 to launch an appeal over the action, which Mr Scott intends to do. The process is likely to trigger a public inquiry.

The action is an attempt to resolve a five-year dispute, which has already included one public inquiry, between Mr Scott and residents in Bagby and Thirkleby over aircraft noise levels.

About 30 people who rely on the airfield for their income, ranging from a manufacturer of small aircraft to pilots who fly jockeys to horseracing meetings, said they would be forced out of work by the enforcement action.

Mark Golding, who has run a repair business for aircraft using the site for 20 years, said: “There is no similar airfield within a 20-mile radius of here. Where am I expected to go after this – the dole queue?”

Mr Scott, who does not charge the air ambulance to use the airfield, described the enforcement action as “heavyhanded”

and said the council was targeting the businesses that keep the airfield viable.

The air ambulance covers an area with a population of five million people. It has two aircraft, one based at Bagby, the other at Leeds Bradford International Airport.

A spokesman for the air ambulance said the charity was considering its position.