COUNCILLORS were being urged today not to block a golden opportunity to take Elvington Airfield - and York - into the 21st century.

Elvington Park Ltd wants to build a row of six hangars, allowing an air taxi service to be created which could let business people fly in from foreign and domestic airports, and have access to companies in the city.

But City of York Council officers are recommending that a planning committee meeting this evening should refuse permission, saying the buildings would not be appropriate for the Green Belt and would mean dozens of extra flight movements at the airport every day.

Elvington Parish Council has also objected to the scheme.

Council chiefs are also carrying out a wider "enforcement" investigation into activities at the airfield, following complaints from local residents.

York and North Yorkshire business leader Len Cruddas has already blasted the officers' recommendations as short-sighted, claiming that the project could bring more skilled and well-paid jobs to the region.

Now a founder of the Yorkshire Air Museum, Ian Robinson MBE, has spoken out, calling for councillors to go against their officers' advice and approve the hangars.

"I feel very strongly that this is a golden opportunity," he said.

"The city has got to move into the 21st century. I hope the council would take a long-term view rather than a short-term view."

He said the development would bring commercial benefits and jobs, and would also benefit the air museum, which would attract even more visitors from the air if hangars were available to fliers.

He did not believe the extra flights coming in would affect people living locally.

"The approach to the airfield is over open countryside rather than over villages," he said.

Mr Robinson also said that the York area had an aviation history going back to the First World War, with airfields built all around the city. At Clifton Moor, there had been an airfield before, during and after the Second World War, and Elvington had been used as an airfield since 1942.

Updated: 11:00 Thursday, September 25, 2003