Ex-RAF airbase in Shropshire set for car storage use
A derelict airbase could be transformed after being bought by one of the county's biggest businesses.
Greenhous Group, which runs car dealerships across Shropshire, has been unveiled as the new owner of the former RAF base at High Ercall between Shrewsbury and Telford.
Greenhous bosses say they intend to "sympathetically redevelop" the 34-acre site, known as the Angel Centre, to store vehicles and prepare them for sale.
The company said it intends to submit plans to transform the site into a car storage base.
If it is given the go ahead, the expansion of the business will create 50 new jobs.
The Shropshire Star revealed last month that Greenhous was in talks over buying the site which has been derelict for more than a decade.
The base went on the market in March with a price tag of more than £1.5 million but Greenhous has not revealed the amount it has paid for it.
The majority of the runways have been removed from the base, leaving only small tracks, however nine hangars still are present, spread out over the site.
A spokesman for the Greenhous Group said: "We hope to sympathetically redevelop the facility which has lain empty and derelict for the past 10 years.
"This will allow us to store vehicles and prepare them for later sale.
"The company is delighted to be experiencing continued growth and this new upgraded facility will create up to 50 new jobs when fully operational."
The base is home to two large aircraft hangars, a modern workshop and several office and ancillary buildings. Three connected residential blocks known as Telford House, Wellington House and Shrewsbury House provide 161 bedrooms with around 82 en-suite.
A detached single storey residential block known as Ercall House has a further 21 bedrooms.
The base, which is dominated by two huge hangars, was used by the RAF during the war.
From 1941 it was used by the RAF as an officers training unit and a maintenance unit. Later it was used by Fighter Command as a night fighter base for some of its squadrons.
It was also used by the United States Army 8th Air Force's 309 Fighter Squadron. In the 1960s it became a training centre for the haulage industry.
For a while the site was earmarked as a possible holding centre for asylum seekers, but for at least the last eight years it has been empty, except for some storage in the colossal on-site warehouses.
Much of the site remains exactly as it was left when the last occupiers moved out. The site was sold by administrators RA Croxen & DJ Crawshaw, who took over the dealings of Angel Group Limited and Bromvale Limited.
It was marketed nationally by chartered surveyors Bulleys.
Greenhous was founded in 1912 and operates a number of franchises including Vauxhall, VW Commercials, Nissan, and Toyota.
The company is one of the Sunday Times top 100 privately owned businesses.
