News / Bristol airport
Campaigners say airport shows ‘contempt’ for community and environment
A campaign group has branded Bristol Airport’s latest proposals “utterly irresponsible”, saying they show “contempt” and “a complete disregard for the local community and environment”.
The airport laid out its plans to expand to 15m passengers per year by 2040 – as well as constructing a larger terminal building and new hotel, and offering flights to the Middle East and USA – in a consultation document on Monday.
Chief executive Dave Lees cites “growing demand for air travel” as justification for the plans.
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But Bristol Airport Action Network, a coalition that has been actively protesting the airport’s expansion since 2021, say the local community has not yet even been able to assess the impacts of the expansion to 12m passengers, an annual capacity permitted by the High Court in 2022.
“The airport’s management has decided that it wants to expand the airport and pursue greater profits at the expense of the local community and the environment,” said Richard Baxter, of BAAN.
https://twitter.com/baancc/status/1855636367549645187
“Millions more passengers will undoubtedly result in more traffic congestion on local roads, increased air and noise pollution as well as rising greenhouse emissions that will contribute to climate breakdown.
“We strongly encourage people to complete the consultation to give the airport a clear message that Bristol Airport is big enough.”
The airport plans comprise over 14,000 extra flights per year including 1,000 additional night flights, equating to up to 39 extra flights each day on average, BAAN say the proposals are irresponsible in light of the climate crisis, and that aviation decarbonisation consistently “fails to deliver”.
Stephen Clarke, a local resident involved in BAAN, said emissions had been estimated at an additional million tonnes per year with the extra 2m passengers per year planned; with the expansion to 15m, the additional 3m per year planned will therefore add another million tonnes-plus on top.
The whole of Bristol’s road network currently produces 529,000 tonnes per year.
“What is happening at the airport is an enormous carbon bomb which will cause huge climate chaos, noise, sleep deprivation from the night flights and local congestion,” said Clarke.
“It makes me and many other people very angry that they are ignoring the local democratic decision of residents and going for a further expansion before we even understand the impact of the last one.
“And to prove their contempt for residents they’re doing the consultation and planning the expansion at the same time as they’re putting the airport up for sale!”
The environment will be further impacted by the level of construction required to expand car parks, terminal buildings and hospitality facilities in order for the airport to accommodate the new passenger numbers.
The expansion will provoke increased traffic in country lanes and nearby local communities, where roads are already heavily congested.
Some comments have suggested the expansion should not go ahead until better public transport links are put in, with current poor connections forcing passengers to rely on car use, causing increased congestion and reduced air quality as well as inconveniencing residents.
As well as the expansion, this year BAAN campaigners joined with local residents to protest the airport exceeding its annual night flight quota, with evidence showing disturbance caused by flights at night causes reduced mental and physical health, and cognitive abilities in children
“There’s been a consensus agreement across the 198 countries attending COP29 to transition away from fossil fuels. Airport expansion spits in the face of this and moves us in a suicidal direction,” said Janet Grimes of BAAN.
“Every added flight uses up tens of thousands of litres of fossil fuels. The only people who truly profit from this are the fossil fuel industries. We must take drastic action to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels and lessen the chaos that a warming planet will deliver.
“Where flying is concerned the easiest step is to not increase the amount of flying we do until we have commercially viable planes which are not powered by fossil fuels. The simplest way to not increase the amount we fly is for the government to legislate against increasing airport capacity in the UK.”
In response to BAAN’s statements a Bristol Airport spokesperson said:
“Airports have to submit a master plan every five years – we are inviting people to share their views and help shape our plans to meet the strong and growing demand of people in the region using Bristol Airport.
“We are bringing forward proposals for what we consider to be responsible growth, growth that is both within the current UK carbon budgets required to meet net zero emissions by 2050, and with measures to achieve net zero Airport operations by 2030. As we develop our proposals, we will update our Sustainability Strategy, identifying additional actions to keep us on track with our commitments.
“Sustainable travel to and from the Airport is very important and our Public Transport Interchange – one of the largest in the region – will increase the number of coach and bus bays from six to 16, when it opens next year. Additionally, all staff journeys on the A1 and A3 Flyer bus will remain free.
“There is a clear desire from our customers to travel by air and connect with families and friends. If they can do so from their local airport, it could potentially reduce some of the journeys of the 10 million passengers travelling to fly from airports in the south east.”
Main image: BAAN
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