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LONDON (Alliance News) - Property developer Sutton Harbour Holdings PLC said its regeneration efforts for its airfield site have been hampered by the local council, but said its other divisions should see a strong couple of months as it enters into the spring season.
Speaking to Alliance News, Chief Executive Jason Schofield said the brownfield airport site, which is owned by Sutton Harbour, could "accommodate up to 10% of the housing need for Plymouth in the next few years", but the council "choose to ignore this fact at the moment" as there is a "flip-flopping between Labour and Conservatives in the area, so both sides try to stay away from anything contentious".
Schofield noted he now thinks the use of the site will not be resolved until after the UK local elections in May, saying "we think that it is following the same sort of lines as the issues surrounding the London Gatwick airport and London Heathrow extension, which is delayed until after the London mayoral election, so there probably won't be any change until after May - the airport is a political hot potato".
The airport closed in December 2011 after notice of closure on grounds of non-viability was ratified by Plymouth City Council at a full council meeting, following which the company "promoted the site for alternative use which is one of our contractual obligations".
However, Sutton Harbour said Plymouth City Council, in its role as the local planning authority, "continues to express its desire in the draft 'Plymouth Plan' to safeguard the former airport site for general aviation use".
Sutton Harbour is currently waiting on review of the former Plymouth airport site, which was announced by the UK government in the March 2015 budget, into whether the airport can be re-opened. The report was originally planned to be published by the end of 2015, but Sutton Harbour said the report was now on track to be published by the summer.
"Our biggest challenge for the years ahead will be making sure that we can bring forward our projects and that we get the right planning environment and political environment that continues to encourage regeneration - it's about political support to a business," Schofield added.
However, whilst the regeneration of the airfield site is on hold until planning decisions can be made, Schofield said Sutton Harbour is making progress within a number of its other divisions away from the airfield site, including its car parking, marina and fishing businesses.
Schofield said "there are currently works to put in some floating walkways into the lock, so that has been a really important investment to make sure that we continue to grow and see the fish market thrive", whilst Sutton Harbour is also "looking to make infrastructure improvements, for example we're looking at LED lighting, which has an immediate benefit for the area around the marina".
"We've got scope to build on the car parking revenue, particularly in our multi-storey car park where on average the occupancy rate for a 340-space car park works out between 60% and 80% a year which means we've got a huge way still to go and improve," Schofield added.
Schofield also noted, as Sutton Harbour moves towards the summer period, it expects good trading, particularly within its fishing division, saying that "this is quite a key time, with the first four months of the year being pretty good months for us from a fishing perspective".
"Along with that we've been working to improve the vista profile of the harbour, and will be looking to improve this further, so Sutton Harbour can be thought of like Albert Dock [in Liverpool] or St Katherine Dock [in Tower Hamlets, London]," Schofield added, "for example we're looking at creating a waterfront leisure project".
Shares in Sutton Harbour were down 0.8% at 24.81 pence on Wednesday.
In its interim results in December, covering the six months to the end of September, Sutton Harbour saw pretax profit double as it focused on improving activities in its core assets and selling non-core assets.
In the half to the end of September, pretax profit for the company rose to GBP1.3 million from GBP661,000, despite total revenue dipping to GBP3.7 million from GBP3.8 million. That was offset by a lower cost of sales in the half and a gain the company made on the revaluation of its investment property.
By Hannah Boland; hannahboland@alliancenews.com; @Hannaheboland
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