KNUTSFORDIANS turned out in force on Friday to hear the latest developments regarding compensation from Manchester airport.

More than 300 people packed Knutsford High School’s hall on October 30 to hear airport campaigner Jeff Gazzard and Tatton MP George Osborne discuss if compensation would be paid to homeowners affected by the creation of the second runway.

The airport agreed a deal with solicitors Hugh James in July that has seen more than 300 claimants receive a sum of money relative to how the creation of the second runway affected the price of their home.

But this deal does not mean everyone in the town is set to benefit and during the meeting – that lasted two hours – Mr Gazzard explained that the airport had agreed to ‘hold talks about holding talks’ regarding the homeowners who had not received any money.

And Jeff told the audience that if the airport didn’t pay up he would go on a hunger strike until they did.

“I’m not just saying it for effect, people who know me realise that,” he said.

“But it is in the airports interest to be reasonable and fair. It is great to have our MP on side and we were pleased with the turn out.

“You can’t promise people that it will be easy money but I do know we have got a good case.

“We are a bit away from getting a settlement but I do think we can be optimistic about going to the airport and presenting a reasonable case.”

Jeff and Mr Osborne met with Charlie Cornish, the new chief executive of the airport, shortly before the public meeting.

Mr Osborne said: “I’ve met the new chief executive at the airport and hopefully we can look at these issues afresh and I have battling on this for many years and we finally got some payments, which is good news and we all fought very hard for this.

“But there are obviously people who feel, quite rightly, that their next door neighbour got some money and they didn’t and that is what this public meeting is about.

“I’m working hand in glove with Jeff and the two of us have worked together on it for many years and we both met the airport today (Friday) and I asked Jeff to attend the meeting with me.

“Not only is Jeff a seasoned airport campaigner but also a Knutsford resident and we are very lucky to have someone of his calibre here in Knutsford to organise these issues.

“What I would say is that I have spent more time on this issue than probably any other and the airport have been very, very slow and treated people badly and not lived up to the promises they made when I arrived as an MP but at least now they are paying out to some people and now they should pay out to all the people who frankly should be compensated.”

A collection was held at the end of the meeting that raised £394.11 towards the cost of the hire of the room and the PA system.

What do you think about the public meeting? Let us know on our forums at forum.knutsfordguardian.co.uk.