Glenn Miller: Holiday lodges planned for site of his last hangar concert

Plans to turn the site of a memorial to American bandmaster Glenn Miller into a holiday complex have provoked "major concerns" over its future.

The proposal would see 55 short break lodges built at Jack's Green on the former RAF Kings Cliffe site in Northamptonshire, where Maj Miller played his last hangar concert.

Historian Kevin Flecknor said he had "major concerns" over the memorial.

Landowner Philip Ashton-Jones said it would remain "exactly as it is today".

RAF Kings Cliffe, was home to the US Army Air Force during World War Two. Maj Miller and his orchestra played their last ever hangar concert there on October 3, 1944.

In December that year the band leader went missing while flying to Paris to play for soldiers there.

His plane, a single-engined UC-64 Norseman departed from RAF Twinwood Farm in Clapham, on the outskirts of Bedford and disappeared while flying over the English Channel.

A memorial to commemorate the concert was erected in August 1983.

Mr Flecknor, who lives in Kettering and works as UK liaison for the Cold War Museum Berlin Chapter, wrote to East Northamptonshire Council to express his concerns about the development.

He said: "I have major concerns about the Glenn Miller Memorial and I fear for its safety."

He said the memorial should be moved to an adjacent part of the airfield site.

Marcella Beaudreau, who lives in the United States and runs a website about Britain's historical airfields, said it was "very important" to maintain the history and culture at the site.

"That is the place where you can stand and imagine that on that night in October 1944, Glenn Miller played 'In the Mood' to a group of service men and women and lifted their spirits," she said.

Mr Ashton-Jones said the "luxurious lodges" would help to pay for the upkeep of the countryside.

A consultation on the proposal ended on 19 January but a date for the council to hear the application had not yet been set.