The Cornwall Aviation Heritage Centre has received a devastating blow to its exciting plans to relocate to a new site.

Cornwall Council insists that the museum must vacate its current premises immediately, even though the new site will not be ready for at least 12 to 18 months. This means that the museum’s plans to relocate are in tatters.

The council formally advised Cornwall Aviation Heritage Centre on April 4 it must clear the entire site and move thousands of valuable and vulnerable heritage exhibits by Tuesday, April 11 otherwise the unitary authority’s agent will ‘make arrangements for them to be disposed of’.

The museum was sure that they had fixed the threat to their future when local land-owner and businessman Rundle Weldhen offered a new site alongside the airport and entrepreneur philanthropist Mark Lancaster (SDL Ltd/SDL Foundation) pledged £1million for the relocation project.

Cornwall Aviation Heritage Centre and Mark Lancaster were in negotiations to remain at the current premises and trade until December 2023 to raise additional funds and prepare the new site for the relocation project but, as of March 24 this request was allegedly flatly refused even though the airport and council have not published any plans for the existing premises once the site has been vacated.

Despite publicly stating that they would support the museum if it presented a credible and deliverable proposal to relocate, Cornwall Council has insisted that Cornwall Aviation Heritage Centre vacate its current premises immediately.

The airport has agreed to allow some space on the old disused runway to temporarily store some of the historic aircraft whilst they are prepared for transport or scrapping, and the council had scheduled a meeting for April 13 to discuss storage options for the more vulnerable indoor aircraft and heritage exhibits, some of which need to be protected while arrangements are put in place to return them to their RAF, Navy and private owners.

This meeting now appears to have been unilaterally abandoned, without any advice from the council.

Museum founder and director Richard Spencer-Breeze (Submitted)

Museum founder and director Richard Spencer-Breeze said ‘Clearing the site by March 11, over the Easter weekend is completely impossible. Are they mad?

"We only received notification that Mark Lancaster’s proposal for Cornwall Aviation Heritage Centre to trade until December had been refused 10 days ago and we immediately started the process of clearing the museum from the site, but this deadline is ridiculous.

"We’ve fought for so long, but we can’t go on like this any longer.

"This council seems committed to seeing this museum close forever.

"We found a new site after they turned down all of our previous proposals without even discussing them, we raised £1million, we received the unequivocal support of every major education body in the county, we offered the once in a lifetime chance for Cornwall to have a unique, all-year, state-of-the-art aerospace attraction and education hub.

"All they had to do was let us stay where we are for another eight to 12 months.

"But no, they won’t even let us relocate in realistic fashion, they would rather see this one-of-a-kind, award-winning business disappear. It’s utterly disgraceful."

Ian Watkins, the director of Cornwall Aviation Heritage Centre, added: "Thousands of heritage items of national importance are threatened with disposal as elderly volunteers scramble to salvage what they can after CBRE issued a statement on behalf of the airport, wholly owned by Cornwall Council, instructing that the building must be vacated before Wednesday April 12.

"This is an impossible task to complete over any weekend, but especially so over the Easter holiday. 

"The museum was notified on March 24 that the requested lease extension and request to continue museum operations for the 2023 season had been rejected.

"However, it was indicated that storage of the museum’s exhibits at an alternative airport location was still in discussion and that the museum would not be excluded from its airport site after March 31st.

"Cornwall Aviation Heritage Centre, commenced actions to prepare and vacate the premises as requested.

"On March 27 the museum requested a meeting with Cornwall Council to discuss the arrangements to vacate its current premises and storage of exhibits. 

"On March 28 the airport offered temporary parking space for some outdoor aircraft on the disused runway.

"On March 29 an invitation to a meeting to discuss storage arrangements for exhibits and vacating the property was received from the Council.

"On March 31 Cornwall Council notified the museum that the Airport had told the Council that no storage for exhibits was available other than for aircraft stored outdoors.

"On April 4, whilst attempts were being made by the museum to secure a safe storage location for all the exhibits, Cornwall Airport, through its agents CBRE Property management UK issued notice that unless all items were removed from the building by close of business on April 11th, the airport would arrange for everything to be disposed of.  

"The seven day period between April 4 and 11 includes a major public holiday. Removing thousands of items of historic importance and finding safe storage is totally unachievable in that time. 

"It therefor looks likely that the exhibits, many on loan from other individual and national bodies will be seized and disposed of. 

"This entire story of the attempts by Cornwall Airport and its sole owner Cornwall Council to destroy a viable enterprise located on a former business development zone deserves full investigation."

Georgina Barry, an associate director for CBRE Property Management UK, in an email to Mr Spencer-Breeze, said: "As you are aware, your legal occupation of the HAS3 premises expired last Friday.

"I understand that you have not yet cleared the unit therefore please be advised that if all items are not removed by COB next Tuesday (11th April), we will make arrangements for them to be disposed of.

"We appreciate storage of the museum’s aircraft is not easy to find, therefore we will try to find space for them on a temporary basis however we do not have storage facilities for any of the exhibits or other display items therefore if these are not removed as requested, we will have no alternative but to proceed as set out above.

"I cannot at present confirm where we may be able to facilitate storage of the aircraft but I will confirm as soon as I am able."

The online petition to save the Cornwall Aviation Heritage Centre has attracted more than 40,000 signatures and thousands of heartfelt message of outrage and support - https://www.change.org/p/save-cornwall- aviation-heritage-centre