AN historic RAF base in Bicester is to go on sale, just as campaigners step up their bid for a heritage centre on the site.

A firm representing owners the Ministry of Defence has confirmed RAF Bicester’s flying field and buildings, off Skimmingdish Lane, are to go on the market.

Several parties are understood to be interested in buying the so-called technical site, described by English Heritage as the best preserved bomber command base in the country.

But that could mean volunteer group Bomber Command Heritage, which has a long-held ambition to turn the site into a heritage centre and museum, could have a fight on its hands.

Next week BCH is expected to officially join forces with Cherwell District Council, adding weight to the campaign to secure the land for heritage purposes. The group has also launched a fund raising appeal to back its efforts.

BCH chairman Dean Overton said: “It’s predictable there will be interested parties, but no-one has any idea, apart from ourselves, of the financial liability at the site.

“We are in a position to make a bid, and rather than best price it will be based on best value.

“We have got MP Tony Baldry and the council working to emphasise it should be done on best value.”

BCH wants the MOD to give the land to the organisation for free for the “greater public benefit” and believes the scale of work needed on listed monuments, estimated at £35m, and building restrictions, would put off a developer.

The site was listed as a conservation area by the council in 2002, and English Heritage listed 42 buildings there.

A spokesman for the Def-ence Infrastructure Organisation, which looks after the MOD’s property, said: “We can confirm that marketing for the RAF Bicester site will commence shortly.

“The MOD’s marketing agent BNP Paribas Real Estate will place adverts soon and we expect site viewings to take place over the summer.We aim to complete the sale by the end of this financial year.”