Another CrIchel Down ?
Wherever there is any reasonable cause for suspicion that officialdom may be encroaching on the rights of the individual, a public inquiry is the remedy and it should be applied promptly. Commander George Marten drove that lesson home after a long and exhausting struggle. Now, only a few months after his victory at Crichel Down, he has another fight on his hands. It is not of the same degree of importance. but it is well worth looking into. Between 1940 and 1944 the land which now constitutes the Tarrant Rushton Airfield was compulsorily acquired. In the view of the Air Ministry this airfield would be immediately required in the event of another war and so it is being handed over to a private commercial firm, in Commander Marten's words, for no other reason than that the firm will act as convenient caretakers.' What has in effect been happening is the industrialisation of part of an area scheduled as agricultural by the county planning authority. According to Commander Marten 150 workers have found homes in the vicinity while another 600 are brought daily by bus. The great majority of these arc engaged in work which need not be done on an airfield, and Commander Marten's case, in brief, is that if this process of industrialisa- tion by stealth is to be given permanent sanction, agriculture, which forms the backbone of community life in the district, will be seriously disrupted.' The Secretary of State for Air may have a strong case of his own, but it certainly does not emerge from his replies to Commander Marten's letters. He says, for example, that he has been at great pains ' 'to ascertain the views of local interests, to which Commander. Marten replies that in any investigation that has been promoted none of my neighbours most directly concerned have been consulted.' This being so, the public may be forgiven if it hears a faint ring of Crichel Down in the Minister's bland assurance. No good reason has been given as yet for the industrialising of this part of Dorset. Commander Marten has a case and the Secretary of State for Air would be wise if he reconsidered his decision that a public inquiry is not called for.
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