Your say / Bristol airport
‘Why are we going to destroy our environment by expanding Bristol Airport?’
Bristol Airport has announced its expansion plans to grow to 12 million passengers per year by the mid-2020s.
This is phase one of its plan to increase capacity to 20 million passengers per year by the mid-2040s.
In 2017, the airport reached 8 million passengers annually. This means that there is a 50 per cent increase in growth to 12 million. This growth will impact on us all in different ways.
is needed now More than ever
Aviation is the fastest growing source of greenhouse gases in the UK.
The planes from Bristol Airport already create excessive carbon emissions.
More flights will lead to increased traffic and, taken together, we will see significant increases in carbon emissions.
Hilary argues the economic argument in favour of the airport expansion is weak
The climate talks in Poland have only just finished and we learnt two things: that we have 12 years in which to reduce carbon emissions and, as David Attenborough stated very clearly, “civilisation will collapse if humanity doesn’t take action on Global Warming”.
Why are we going to destroy, further, our local and global environment?
Bristol Airport is a leisure airport with only 17 per cent of all passengers from the business sector, so the economic argument is weak.
Good connectivity is available now with a choice of over 120 destinations and you can travel to anywhere in the world through the European hubs.
More than 85 per cent of all passengers travel to and from the airport by car but there are no plans for rail or mass transit in phase one, just a tweaking of the junctions at Downside and Winters Lane.
The Regional Air Services Co-ordination study for Bristol Airport’s own master plan stated that with 12 million passengers per year, 40 per cent of all traffic on the A38 would be airport related leading to congestion spilling over to rural lanes and the A370, causing severe congestion and gridlock.
Car parking will remain an issue. There will be a further 5.1 hectares taken from the green belt for low cost car parking and buildings.
There will then be approximately 15,000 cars parked on green belt. The airport is constructing a new administration block on the green belt, which local parishes were powerless to prevent, and other buildings will follow. This is unwarranted destruction of the environment and an act of vandalism.
More flights mean more ground and air noise throughout the day and night. There will be no respite from the increased frequency of flights with, on average, a flight every three minutes.
Bristol Airport has completely ignored residents’ concerns over flights at night. Parishes have made it quite clear that any increase in night flights is completely unacceptable.
Hilary Burn, chair of the Parish Councils Airport Association (PCAA).
Made up of 21 parishes surrounding Bristol Airport, the role of the PCAA is to respond to relevant consultations and to strengthen the voice of local people in respect of activity at the airport.
Read more: ‘The sky’s the limit for Bristol Airport’
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