Last updated 05:36, Friday, 11 July 2008

THE Stobart Group could be out of Cumbria by Christmas. It’s not an attractive prospect but countdown to closedown must be faced if Andrew Tinkler’s airport plans fall again at this, their final hurdle.

Unless agreed planning approval can be achieved without public inquiry within six months, not only will heavy investment, prestigious Cumbrian business and much needed jobs shift out of the county but Stobart’s sponsorship of Carlisle United, Carlisle Live and other city promotions will also end.

In frank revelation of his uphill struggle to establish a functioning airport on the Irthington site, Mr Tinkler has accused the Government of moving its own goalposts and leaving him high and dry.

He insists he was assured in September 2007 that his £35m plan would go through without a delaying public inquiry – a promise broken last month. Unexpected turnaround has surprised and disappointed the tycoon. Call to inquiry, he says, has painted him into a corner of no option but to relocate to Widnes, Cheshire, in the new year.

There can be little doubt that, as the country slides more deeply into economic doldrums, loss of existing jobs, potential new employment and an injection of investment worth multi-millions of pounds will be a severe blow to Cumbria – most keenly felt in Carlisle.

The Government will say only that the plan was called in because it was of “greater than local importance.”

Never a truer word. This investment, on which the livelihoods and hopes of hundreds of families depend, the growth of Carlisle is hinged and to which much of Cumbria looks for regional progress, has importance much greater than local interest – and infinitely greater than central Government posturing.

Mr Tinkler’s proposals already have support from Carlisle City Council, Cumbria Vision, the Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA), the CBI and Cumbria County Council. Why would he not be stunned by a Government pulling the rug from under of all those bodies?