Plans for the construction of a memorial museum at Biggin Hill airport have been passed by the executive of Bromley Council despite a petition opposing it gaining nearly 9,000 signatures.

Plans for construction of the Biggin Hill Memorial Museum to take place later this year were approved by the Executive on Wednesday, July 19. It is recommended by council officers to be approved at a full council meeting tonight (Tuesday, July 25).

The news follows the museum being given the green light for construction in April 2017 and a successful Heritage Lottery award of £2m earlier this month, meaning that the £5.325m project can go-ahead.

Bromley Council's leader, councillor Stephen Carr, said: “We must help future generations remember and understand, not just the part Biggin Hill played in the Battle of Britain but also something of the wider context.

“The Biggin Hill Memorial Museum will be a place that can help to achieve this. It has been enormously important that not only is a museum finally built but also that the chapel remains as a place of worship alongside a confidence of the Museum’s future because of the endowment fund and business plan in place.”

However, campaigners have spoken out against the plans to renovate parts of the Battle of Britain RAF chapel into a museum.

A petition online has more than 8,400 signatures towards a 9,000 signature goal.

The petition organiser Rita Radford invited the petition backers to attend tonight’s council meeting in a last ditch attempt to stop the museum.

Rita said before the meeting: “We are not opposed in the slightest to a museum at Biggin Hill. One has been long awaited and needed.

“We are against the council’s horrendous design that has had so much opposition. There were 100 objections to the planning application and current designs will mean we lost parts of a beautiful building.

“This is a matter of nationally important significance. Previous proposals are better suited and more importantly would not lose parts of the chapel.”

Rita said a design had previously been submitted by Biggin Hill Battle of Britain Supporters Club that would be better for a museum.

Petition backers also left comments online stating: “I believe in our heritage and them who gave their all to provide us with it should be honoured.”

Another said: “It is historically important as a memorial, to the "Few"”.

The chapel was built in 1951 and is a Grade II listed building.

The museum plans, which are supported by Historic England, include the removal of the side annex constructed in 1990, with the Museum providing a visual frame around the chapel.

Rita said: “This is a beautiful part of the building built by an acclaimed architect, if you looked at it you would think it was part of the original structure.”

The St George’s RAF Chapel of Remembrance is a memorial to the aircrew who gave their lives in aerial combat during the Second World War.

Councillor Carr added: “I would like to thank the Biggin Hill Memorial Museum Trust for their diligence in bringing forward plans that have already been described as exemplary.

“Work with the wider community will continue – the recent exhibition day which gave an opportunity for comment about which building materials is an example of this. I look forward to seeing the Museum opened next year and am optimistic about phase two being achieved shortly after this.”

Biggin Hill Memorial Museum will also join in RAF 100 celebrations next year, working with partners across a new London based network to recognise Biggin’s contribution to RAF history.

The Council will continue to work in partnership with the Biggin Hill Memorial Museum Trust who is responsible for the future of the Museum.