An outline of plans to create an exhibition centre within an old RAF Airfield Control Tower in Co Tyrone with glamping pods and a sizeable mixed-use development have been submitted to Council for consideration.
Known as a Pre-Application Notice (PAN), the outline plans were put forward to Mid Ulster Council in the name of Air River Ltd, a renewable energy company based in Magherafelt.
They relate to lands in Ardboe formerly occupied by the Royal Air Force which operated from the south east of Mullanahoe Road around the time of WWII.
According to Control Towers’ website, the site was one of several wartime airfields built to “support the expanding Allied air presence in the region”.
Construction began in 1940 but wasn’t completed until 1942. Later in 1943, it transferred to the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) and became USAAF Station 238.
While under the control of USAAF, the station largely functioned as a training grounds for bomber crews.
It briefly returned to RAF control in 1944 and then finally closed towards the end of the war, in June 1945.
In the years that followed the base functioned intermittently as an airfield and for a time became a business centre.
Today, Air River Ltd have expressed their intention to construct a mixed-use development on the lands, taking in the existing Airfield Control Tower to be converted to Exhibition Centre.
They also hope to create “Nissen hut style glamping pods” – military huts developed for housing troops during WWI – in-keeping with the history of the site.
Plans also encompass an extension to an existing solar array farm, new office units, two industrial units with associated offices, new sports facilities, associated parking facilities and access onto Kilmascally Road.
At this time no other supporting evidence has been provided with the application.
If approved in principle, the applicant will then move to submit a more detailed and comprehensive application for either outline planning permission or full planning permission.
Updates will be published when made available.
