Pilots using the former HMS Daedalus airfield at Lee-on-the-Solent will now have to pay an annual charge of £550 to cover costs such as maintenance and insurance.

Microlight owners will have to fork out £275.

The charges come after police threatened to ban general aviation from Daedalus.

Police chiefs said taxpayers shouldn't have to foot the bill for private pilots to use the site.

At a meeting of the Hampshire Police Authority, which controls the police purse-strings, Seán Woodward, leader of Fareham Borough Council, said: 'Nobody likes paying money for anything, that's how life is. The charge that is being proposed I think we should accept.'

At a previous meeting, it had been proposed to charge pilots up to £2,000 each for a licence to use the airfield.

But committee members told Hampshire police chiefs to go away and make it cheaper.

Councillor Margaret Snaith, who is responsible for recreation, heritage and communities on Hampshire County Council, added: 'I think we have reached the best possible outcome.'

The charges – rubber-stamped at a meeting in Winchester yesterday (Tuesday) – will be introduced with immediate effect.

Speaking after the meeting, Steve Cockshott, spokesman for Lee Flying Association, said: 'The police authority has been discussing the fees with us for some time and there is no problem as far as we are concerned. It is a figure about one-fifth of which they originally proposed.'