‘Ridiculous plans for Bristol Airport will only be stopped if individuals continue to resist them’

So where are we now with Bristol Airport’s expansion plans? Many of you will have noticed recently that a problem that you may have thought was solved when the plans were rejected by a local planning committee, has reappeared like a carbon-guzzling Dracula.

What can you do? This is the last chance to make your written comments to the inspector concerning this biggest regional carbon-decision in a generation. Please write with your comments to leanne.palmer@planninginspectorate.gov.uk (headed Case No 3259234) but it has to be submitted by Monday, February 22.

To recap on some of the reasons you might want to object: The airport put in plans for expansion in December 2018. They wanted permission for two million more passengers a year flying on an extra 23,600 planes which would produce an additional million tonnes of carbon.

The expansion would also have meant an extra 10,000 car journeys a day, a new multi-storey car park on Greenbelt land, extra night flights in the summer and a number of other damaging environmental impacts.

The community fought back; Bristol Airport Action Network (BAAN), the local parishes, Extinction Rebellion, national organisations such as Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and the Green Party and many, many individuals came together in an unstoppable coalition.

The protestors managed to generate over 8,000 objections, held numerous town-hall style meetings and engaged in many acts of non-violent direct action. The councillors making the decision were lobbied, love-bombed and informed about the issues and were left understanding in no uncertain terms how strongly people in the region felt about the plans.

The result was declared at a great evening on February 10, 2020 when the planning committee overwhelmingly rejected the plans.

Many protested against the airport expansion. Photo: Serafina Lee

So far so good; the airport, however, decided to ignore the will of local people, ignore the impact of Covid-19 on their business plan and ignore the climate emergency by appealing against the decision to the national planning inspectorate.

This means that the decision of the inspector in the appeal will now be made following a public inquiry starting on July 22 (and lasting up to ten weeks!). It also means that the decision has become a matter of national, as well as local, importance as COP 26 will be looming on the horizon, 23 other local airports with expansion plans are watching to see the result and meanwhile, the Climate Emergency we have all declared, gets worse.

What are we doing about the appeal? BAAN have raised some money through a crowd-funder and will have their own barrister as well as a small team of world-class experts giving evidence. We will also be able to cross-examine the airport on their exaggerated claims, half-truths and downright lies.

Even if you have already made a comment previously about the plans, you can now put in a new objection because so much of the context has changed. Those changes include huge fires in Siberia, record climate extremes and other global warming related events.

There are also various vital new policy decisions in the UK (such as the Climate Change Committee’s 6th Carbon Budget) which are likely to lead to tougher carbon budgets for aviation. This of course is one of the reasons why Bristol Airport are so anxious to get their expansion approved now. Another change has been the collapse in demand caused by Covid-19.

What might you say in your objection? Ideally, as well as saying how you feel emotionally about the plans, you could comment on the main planning reasons for the refusal. These were:

• The impact on the health and well-being of residents caused by noise and reduced air quality;
• The proposed lifting of seasonal restrictions on night flights;
• The scale of greenhouse gas emissions which would accelerate climate change;
• The proposed extension to the Silver Zone car park which clearly constitutes inappropriate development in the Green Belt;
• The proposed almost non-existent public transport provision which will contribute to hugely increased congestion in the area.

Bristol Airport submitted a planning application to increase capacity to 12,000 passengers per year. Photo: Bristol Airport

Your elected politicians in Bristol and WECA have shown little leadership on this issue. Despite Bristol City Council agreeing to a motion saying that airport growth would be incompatible with the region’s carbon targets, the council’s stated written position remains one of support for the expansion plans. The same is true of WECA (even though BANES and North Somerset are against the plans).

The truth is that these ridiculous business-as-usual plans will only be stopped if individuals continue to resist them; individuals like you and me. I really believe we can stop these plans ruining all the good work that has been done in Bristol on climate issues.

Please write to the inspectorate and show them that Bristol will not accept these plans. Bristol Airport is big enough!

Stephen Clarke is Green councillor for Southville.

Main photo: Aphra Evans

Read more: Bristol City Council decides airport expansion ‘incompatible’ with carbon reduction targets