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Model flying club grounded as it looks for new site

John Devinein Wimblington
News imageJohn Devine/BBC Neil Chapman smiling at the camera while clutching a large orange-and-white model jet plane in a grassy field. The model has the word "Zeus" on it in big lettering. Neil has a largely bald head with short grey hair at the sides, and he is wearing a black polo neck top.John Devine/BBC
Neil Chapman said his club had always got on well with the RSPCA, which gave it access to land

The chairman of a model aircraft flying club said he felt "disappointed" it faced eviction from its current home.

Neil Chapman said Doddington Model Club, which flies from a field owned by RSPCA Block Fen in Cambridgeshire, was desperately searching for a new base, having been told it would need to leave by 24 October.

"It is disappointing that it has come very suddenly. We haven't got long to find a new location," he said.

The RSPCA said it had provided the club, which has 25 members, with "notice to facilitate their transition", adding "we sincerely wish them every success in finding a new location".

News imageNeil Chapman Two model aircraft decorated like planes from World War Two sit on a grass runway in a field.Neil Chapman
Neil Chapman said the club met every Sunday morning at the one-and-a-half acre field in the Cambridgeshire Fens

The model club, which formed in 2012, is linked to the British Model Flying Association.

"Some of our members have been flying model planes since they were teenagers, 50 years ago," said Chapman.

He said the arrangement with the RSPCA had been quite informal. The club paid £60 per quarter to use the land and it made a yearly donation to the charity too, with members volunteering at various events.

But at the end of last year, Chapman said he was asked to sign a contract to make things more official.

"I signed the contract in June this year and by July it had been terminated," he said.

Chapman said if the club could no longer find a home, many members would simply stop flying.

"We have got younger members, but in the main they are older people - they won't want to drive too far to carry on flying, they'll just give up," he said.

News imageNeil Chapman A man wearing an orange tabard is flying a white model aircraft over a field of freshly cut grass.Neil Chapman
Chapman said the site was maintained by club members and located about half-a-mile from the RSPCA re-homing centre at Block Fen

In a statement, the RSPCA said: "We are deeply grateful to the Doddington Model Club for their dedicated support and fundraising efforts over the years.

"The charity's decision to end the licence agreement was not taken lightly; however, due to evolving operational requirements and pressures at the site, it was felt we unfortunately no longer have the capacity to continue hosting the club alongside the team's primary animal welfare work.

"The RSPCA has provided the club with notice to facilitate their transition and we sincerely wish them every success in finding a new location."

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