AN HISTORIC York airfield could wave goodbye to two of its three remaining runways under a new planning application.

The airfield at Acaster Malbis was one of many in Yorkshire used by the RAF during the Second World War.

It was first used as support for nearby fighter base Church Fenton, before becoming a base to train pilots.

The airfield was sold by the RAF in the mid-1960s, and is now owned by a number of local farmers, including Roger Raimes.

Mr Raimes has applied to tear up two of the remaining runways and convert them into woods and farmland.

One will remain as an access road to the site.

He said the concrete from the strips were needed as hardcore for local works.

Mr Raimes, who led a long battle against plans to build 2,500 new homes on the airfield during the 1990s, said: "This is the right thing to do - it is tidying up the countryside.

"The main runway will be put back to arable land and a bank of trees will be planted on the outside."

Mr Raimes agreed the work would mean the site "effectively never operates as an airfield again."

But he said very few aircraft used the site anyway, and taking the concrete from there was much more environmentally-friendly than ordering it from elsewhere.

"The concrete is needed for various pieces of local work. I believe it is to be used as hardcore on jobs such as the A64 improvements at Copmanthorpe.

"If materials such as that were driven in from elsewhere it could have a major impact on traffic and pollution levels in the area.

"It is an issue of conserving the countryside, something I have worked to do for a large amount of my life."

Updated: 09:46 Saturday, June 02, 2001