PERMISSION has been confirmed for the application to extend the runway at Southampton Airport.

Following the decision to grant planning permission on April 10, there had been calls for the government to call in the application.

Now though, Eastleigh Borough Council says it has issued a decision notice to grant permission.

This means that work on the runway is permitted to start and comes after council officers worked with the airport to draft an S106 Legal Agreement.

The agreement is aimed at ensuring that the package of mitigation and long term management of the airport is secured.

In April, the Planning Casework Unit (PCU) at the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG) asked the Council to delay the issuing of the Decision Notice.

This was in order to provide the Secretary of State time to assess the case and decide whether or not to call in the application after receiving requests to do so.

But now a council spokesperson has said: “The Council agreed to, and abided by, this informal request and advised PCU Officers mid-May that the Council intend to issue the decision by the end of May.

“The Council had not received a request from the Secretary of State to not issue the decision and had not received further correspondence from officers within the PCU by the end of May and has now issued the decision notice to grant planning permission for the runway extension.”

Airport Operations Director, Steve Szalay, said this was a “huge milestone” and added that the airport is “keen to get started as soon as possible.”

“The signing of the Section 106 Agreement means we have been granted full planning permission to deliver the 164-metre runway extension and in doing so we can not only safeguard the jobs of our airport colleagues, but are now able to create a further 265 more through construction.”

Leader of the council, Cllr Keith House, said: “The Council took the right decision to grant permission for the short runway extension to help save the airport. With the legal agreements complete there was no reason to delay issuing the planning permission. I hope the airport can now crack on with the project to save and create jobs in our local economy.”

Paul Holmes, MP for Eastleigh added: “I’ve constantly campaigned for the runway extension to go ahead and am delighted this has now been confirmed. This will provide a huge boost to out local area in terms of jobs, growth and investment.”

Airport Expansion Opposition and the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government were approached for comment but were unable to reply before the Echo went to press.