At first glance it is an application for a car park - but it could be the key to Gloucestershire Airport's continued business success.

According to a report filed with Tewkesbury Borough Council seeking planning permission, the development would add an additional 260 parking spaces, taking the total to 320.

Tewkesbury-based agent Zesta Planning, acting on behalf of Gloucestershire Airport, said income from the new car park would be key to tackling infrastructure improvements needed for the site to continue to develop as a centre for business.

The car park would be used for the first five years for storage of commercial vehicles, reverting to a car park thereafter.

This on-going development of the site as both an airport and home to businesses is recognised in the Joint Core Strategy, a partnership agreement between Gloucester City Council and Cheltenham Borough Council (owners of the airport), and Tewkesbury Borough Council.

"The initial temporary use of the car park for vehicle storage would generate £150,000 of projected revenue per annum (£750,000 over five years), which would be used to facilitate the essential infrastructure required to deliver the employment land allocations at Gloucestershire Airport as set out within the JCS and the emerging Tewkesbury Borough Local Plan.

"Without this revenue, there is a high risk of these employment locations not being delivered," said Zesta's report.

"An extended car park for the airport can only take place within the defined operational area of Gloucestershire Airport."

"The whole operational area is washed over by Green Belt and therefore no alternative non-greenbelt sites are available in this case that could deliver this development."

Zesta's application goes on to highlight the pressures and precedents associated with the site.

"In December 2018, the Planning Committee resolved to grant planning permission for a new four storey student accommodation block by Skyborne Aviation flight academy to the land directly to the south of the current application site.

"The application was supported on the grounds that it constituted 'very special circumstances'.

"The special circumstances included the council's acknowledgment of the strategic importance of the airport and the supportive/complementary role of the development proposed outweighed the harm to the Green Belt.

"Another key factor was the non-essential operational area designation, which makes the development of the site inevitable."