Hi Chris,
It's already operational. Looking into it the '28-day rule' this concerns the use of the land and not the CAA as I earlier reported. Supposedly, you can use land for any purpose for up to 28-days
Co-incidentally, a friend of mine who is building his own a/c (I give him a hand with the rivetting now & again) was talking to me in work about the airstrip; later on in the day we received a '999' call to... 'an aircraft reported too have crashed in fields close to the M4'. It was of course an a/c landing at the farm strip; the call being made by somebody travelling along the M4 who just saw the a/c disappearing behind some trees.....that rings a bell and yes, there was a fire engine, ambulance & a few police cars !!! At present there are only 3 light a/c parked up at the strip, but there could be a possibility of car-trailered microlights using the facility.
The site is just a rollered piece of farmland with some a/c parked up alongside the hedge. There are plans to erect some 'temporary' hangers. ie planning permission will not be required.
Apparently they're allowed to operate unless somebody puts in a complaint against its usage.
Thanks for the Christmas greetings,
Steve