REIGATE and Banstead Borough Council has come under fire for allowing information relating to a controversial proposal for a hard runway at Redhill Aerodrome to be hidden from the public.
Tandridge District Council refused the same request, on the grounds that the planning process should be transparent to all.
Both councils are set to consider whether or not Redhill Aerodrome Ventures should be allowed to construct a concrete runway later this year.
Jon Horne, chief executive of the aerodrome in Kings Mill Lane, South Nutfield, wrote to both councils in December requesting written confirmation that some information relating to the economic case for the development could remain confidential.
Reigate and Banstead agreed, but Tandridge refused.
In a letter to the aerodrome's agent sent last month, Charlotte Hammerton, planning applications team leader for Tandridge council, wrote: "In order to respond to this request, I sought advice from the council's principal solicitor. His advice was that we could not give such an undertaking, due to the basis of planning law being that all planning decisions should be made in an open, transparent and accountable basis and that as such any documentation made available to officers and members should also be made available to our objectors and members of the public."
She advised: "Any information provided should be either in the public realm already, or aggregated in such a way that it was not commercially sensitive to individual businesses."
However, Reigate and Banstead took a different legal stance. Major projects planning officer Andrew Benson told the Mirror: "Redhill Aerodrome Ventures submitted a business plan in relation to the planning application.
"This contained confidential and commercially-sensitive information, and therefore it was not made public.
"The Freedom of Information Act allows such information to be treated confidentially."
Keep Redhill Airfield Green (Krag), which uncovered the anomaly between the two authorities, said it was "appalled" at Reigate and Banstead's agreement to conceal the information.
Treasurer Stephen Hanks called on the council to make the information public.
He said: "There is clearly a transparency, even a fairness, issue. As the business plan is so fundamental to the application, regarding building in the green belt, it is very important that openness and transparency prevails. There is a moral issue here, as well as potentially a legal issue."
The business case is central to the runway plans. Mr Horne argues the £6 million project will protect hundreds of existing jobs and create more than 100 new ones.
"Very special circumstances" need to be met for development of green belt land to be permitted.
