§ 35. Mr. Errollasked the Under-Secretary of State for Air when the R.A.F. will leave Croydon aerodrome.
The Under-Secretary of State for Air Mr. Strachey)Croydon is already under civil control. We shall move away the one squadron of Transport Command 322 which is still there as soon as the civil operators are able to take over the scheduled services which it runs.
§ Mr. ErrollIn view of the great desire of civil operators to get going as soon as possible, could not my hon. Friend move the squadron away to Bovingdon Northolt immediately?
§ Mr. StracheyWe cannot move the squadron away until the services it runs can be taken over by the civil operators. We are naturally pressing for that at the earliest possible date because we wish to be relieved of these scheduled services. The delay is on the part of the civil operators.
§ Mr. ScollanIs the hon. Gentleman aware that this airport is under civil control and that the military authorities have kept civil aeroplanes flying about and refused to let them land at Croydon?
§ Mr. StracheyIt the hon. Member is referring to flying control at Croydon, I would inform him that there, also, we are only too anxious to hand it over to the civil operators. Our trouble is that we cannot get them to take over because they have not yet the trained personnel and we have to fill the gap for them, but we do not like doing so at all.
§ Air-Commodore HarveyAs the Royal Air Force has some six hundred aerodromes and in view of the speed of modern aircraft, could not the Royal Air Force move from London and give up Croydon and Hendon to civil aviation?
§ Mr. StracheyIn the case of Croydon, a Transport Command squadron is performing what I might call a civil aviation function—it is running scheduled services. In the case of Northolt, it is already a civil airfield, as the hon. and gallant Member knows.
§ Air-Commodore HarveyCould not the Minister remove the squadron to Northolt?
§ Mr. SpeakerNortholt does not come into this Question.