A minister has revealed that contracts for the sale of Elvington airfield are likely to be exchanged in the next few days.

The news follows the announcement that a preferred bidder for the airfield near York had been selected by the Government.

Now junior Defence Minister Peter Kilfoyle has written to Selby MP John Grogan saying: "I thought you would wish to know as soon as possible that we intend to exchange contracts with the successful bidder, Elvington Park Ltd, within the next few days."

Mr Kilfoyle went on to say it was regrettable the sale had been delayed so long, but added: "Nevertheless, Elvington Park Ltd is a locally-based company and I am sure that the site will soon be put to renewed productive use.

"I am particularly pleased to hear that the new owners are content to accommodate the many and varied casual uses to which the airfield has been put in recent years, including the activities of the Yorkshire Air Museum."

Mr Grogan said: "I understand there is a local element to the company, but I would urge them to reveal themselves pretty quickly before the speculation gets out of hand."

He had been promised a contact for Elvington Park Ltd but had not yet got one. There was no time to lose for the Elvington Air Show, which had already started planning for its August bank Holiday spectacular.

Show organiser Dave Tappin said the future of the massively popular show - the last of its kind in Yorkshire - would depend on what the new owners charged for use of the airfield.

He added: "We are making provisional bookings, but we are confirming them as and when we know the airfield's status."

He had heard at third hand that the prospective new owners were sympathetic to the show, and he also understood that the Cardiff-registered company did involve local businessmen.

But he added: "What the new company decides to charge for the field is absolutely crucial. I can't stress that enough.

"We want to continue, we have the will to continue, it's very popular. We had 198,000 hits on the website, which is a lot of people."

Mr Tappin said: "We are confident we can reach an accommodation with the new people, but we won't really know until we have a meeting."

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