Walker Logistics has won consent for a 125,000 sq ft warehouse and aircraft museum on the former Membury Airfield.
West Berkshire Council’s western area planning committee granted approval for the scheme, which was put forward by Pegasus, at its April 28 meeting.
The development, on 5.5 hectares of the former airfield off Ramsbury Road, Hungerford, will form an extension to the business park.
Jim Tarzey, executive director and chairman of Pegasus Group, said: “We are pleased to secure approval for this 125,000 sq ft logistics warehouse at Membury, where an airfield museum is also proposed.
“We were able to successfully demonstrate that any adverse impact to the AONB would be extremely limited, as the proposal is situated between existing employment buildings within the Protected Employment Area to the north and south, as well as lying immediately adjacent to the existing airfield.
“We were therefore able to argue that the proposed economic benefits were significant and just outweigh the impact the proposal would have on the AONB, albeit with landscape mitigation.
“Walker Logistics is primarily a storage, fulfilment, value added supply chain business. They manage the supply chain requirements of companies expanding into the European market. They have been operating from the Membury Industrial Area since 1998.
“The company runs various initiatives to increase skills of their workforce through a staff development training programme, via Newbury College, as well as contributing to and sponsoring a number of local community initiatives.”
The proposed museum will include exhibitions on the aviation history of the disused runway and its use in World War II. The airfield was the departure point for hundreds of American troops heading for Normandy to take part in the D-Day landings.
A C-47 aircraft which took off from Membury during the Normandy campaign has been restored and will be brought back to the site by Walker Logistics.
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