Bristol Airport court case is test for Sunak’s green credentials, and test case for other airport expansion plans
The decision on whether Bristol Airport should be allowed to expand has faced a court challenge. Carla Denyer, the co-leader of the Green Party, has commented that this case has huge significance for the future not just of Bristol and the South West, but for the whole of the UK. Despite the expansion application being rejected by North Somerset council, in February of this year, the Government’s Planning Inspectorate overruled the public mandate and the views of local councillors, all the surrounding councils, the West of England Combined Authority, the local MPs and the vast majority of the local residents. The expansion of Bristol Airport would be catastrophic. The carbon emissions from the expansion alone will equate to an extra 1 million tonnes of CO2 per year. That’s double the annual carbon currently emitted by all the rest of Bristol’s transport. It is a nationally important test case for whether carbon emissions and the UK’s legally binding environmental targets can carry weight in planning decisions. Up to 20 other regional airports have plans to expand, and are waiting and watching this Statutory Appeal closely.
.
Tweet
Opinion: Bristol Airport court case is first test for Rishi Sunak’s green credentials
“The question now is whether Sunak will intervene and rescind the government’s support for expanding UK airports”
By Carla Denyer – co-leader of The Green Party
13 NOV 2022 (In Bristol Live)
The decision on whether Bristol Airport should be allowed to expand has gone into extra time this week, with a court challenge by local residents who are against the expansion. Green Party co-leader and Bristol city councillor Carla Denyer calls on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to intervene
This week, a court in Bristol heard a case that has huge significance for the future not just of Bristol and the South West, but for the whole of the UK.
Since 2018, Bristol Airport has been consistently pushing for an expansion that nearly doubles its capacity and which completely disregards the interests of the public, surrounding private businesses, and the environment.
In February 2020, following the tireless efforts of a regional campaign that was supported by Somerset and Bristol Greens, North Somerset Council rejected the submitted planning application.
Read more: Bristol Airport clashes with campaigners in High Court legal battle
This was a triumph for Greens, climate activists and local residents. It was an instrumental shift that finally placed environmental concerns at the forefront of planning policy and recognised the damaging impacts of overdevelopment and carbon emissions from aviation.
Despite this, in February of this year, the Government’s Planning Inspectorate overruled the public mandate and the views of local councillors, all the surrounding councils, the West of England Combined Authority, the local MPs and the vast majority of the local residents.
Instead of respecting the judgment made by North Somerset council, government planning inspectors decided that the airport expansion would now be granted planning permission.
But this was not the end. Campaigners secured a Statutory Appeal via the High Court to challenge multiple legal errors in the way the decision was made. The hearing took place on Tuesday and Wednesday this week at Bristol Civil Justice Centre.
The expansion of Bristol Airport would be catastrophic. The carbon emissions from the expansion alone will equate to an extra 1 million tonnes of CO2 per year. That’s double the annual carbon currently emitted by all the rest of Bristol’s transport. It would put Bristol’s carbon targets out of reach and completely negate the hard work that local councillors, residents, businesses and institutions have accomplished to reduce carbon emissions. It would put up yet another blockade to reaching a sustainable future.
The expansion will also impact local protected species such as horseshoe bats, cause traffic gridlock on small local roads and mean more air, noise, and light pollution from the estimated 20,000 additional flights per year (including many more night flights). This will not only put Bristol’s and Somerset’s climate targets wildly out of reach but will also deepen inequality, as analysis has shown that airport expansion disproportionally benefits the richest 10% while harming us all through climate change, air pollution and noise pollution.
The court hearing arrived at a pivotal moment for the climate. Just last week, the UN warned there is now ‘no credible pathway’ of keeping world temperatures below 1.5°C. This means that without fast action we are facing a much higher risk of runaway global heating, mass extinctions, famine and rising climate death tolls.
So this hearing is a nationally important test case for whether carbon emissions and the UK’s legally binding environmental targets can carry weight in planning decisions. Up to 20 other regional airports have plans to expand, and are waiting and watching this Statutory Appeal closely. If Bristol’s expansion is given the green light it opens the flood gates to a tsunami of further expansions and puts the UK’s carbon targets out of reach.
This is also another test of Rishi Sunak’s environmental assurances as Prime Minister. The disastrous few weeks of Liz Truss’s premiership saw a massive leap backwards on the Government’s own pledges to net zero. The question now is whether Sunak will intervene and rescind the government’s support for expanding UK airports.
Will he act in the interest of his own party – propped up by donors from the fossil fuel industry – or will he will take decisions in the interests of the public and future generations, and follow advice from his Government’s own Climate Change Committee, which opposes airport expansions?
His U-turn on attending the COP27 climate conference is welcomed, but he must back up this gesture with real action against climate change now, on both the national and global stage.
The UN says that only a ‘large-scale, rapid and fossil fuel-free shake-up’ of our electricity supply, industry, transport and buildings sectors, food and financial systems can avoid disastrous climate impacts. This week’s court hearing, which took place during COP27, will be an important make-or-break decision for not only for Somerset and Bristol but for the UK and the globe. The Green Party is calling on Sunak and his government to rise to this challenge, show global leadership and help create a more secure and sustainable society and economy at home and abroad.
https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/opinion-bristol-airport-court-case-7807129
.
Plans for Bristol Airport 3,000-car park and ride to go to inquiry
The third-party developer believes there is demand for the parking
ByJohn Wimperis (Somerset Live)
1 NOV 2022
The site of the park and ride, to the south of the A370 by Hewish (Image: Google Maps)
Rejected plans for a 3,000-car park and ride for Bristol Airport are going to a planning inquiry after developers appealed the council’s decision to refuse planning permission.
Developer JB Pearce Ltd submitted plans for a park and ride service with parking for 3,101 cars at a site on the A370, a short drive from Junction 21 on the M5. Electric buses would run three to five times an hour, taking passengers to Bristol Airport.
The site of the car park is surrounded by hedgerows which the developers say they will keep. Amanda Sutherland, solicitor for JB Pearce, said: “It shouldn’t look any different externally than it does now, other than signage, etc.”
However, JB Pearce’s plans were refused planning permission by North Somerset Council who cited eleven different reasons, including a failure to show the need for the parking, noise levels, and issues over flood risk.
Ms Sutherland said she had been told that only four of the eleven reasons would be argued at the inquiry. She added: “We are very confident that we are going to succeed.”
Although the park and ride would serve the airport, the developer is a third party acting independently. Parking is a major revenue stream for Bristol Airport, who previously opposed plans for a similar scheme by a different developer.
The airport is also involved in its own planning battle as it seeks to expand its capacity from 10m passengers a year to 12m.
The airport was refused permission for its expansion plans by North Somerset Council, but this was overturned on appeal. Campaigners have now taken the case to the High Court who will hear the case in Bristol on November 7 and 8.
Ms Sutherland said the inquiry had shown there was a need for parking which the third-party plans would address. She said: “There is a gap to meet the parking demand. We consider that our scheme meets that gap.”
She added: “A) We are meeting demand. B) We are going to do it sustainably. And c) we are reducing the impact of the traffic congestion on the local road network.”
The planning inquiry over the park and ride will begin on November 30.
https://www.somersetlive.co.uk/news/local-news/plans-3000-car-park-ride-7763948
.
See earlier:
Bristol airport expansion decision legal challenge – it would hinder UK climate goals
There has been a high court hearing in Bristol, about the possible expansion plans of the airport, from 10 to 12 million annual passengers. Campaigners are challenging the decision of the Planning Inspectorate to allow expansion, even though it had earlier been refused. Lawyers for Bristol Airport Action Network (BAAN) argued the decision did not properly take into account the full environmental impacts of the increase in flights and ignored local climate policies. Bristol Airport Ltd first announced plans to expand in 2018. North Somerset council refused it planning permission in February 2020, citing the inevitable rise in carbon emissions as well as the increase in road traffic, loss of green belt land for parking, and rise in noise and air pollution. Then the airport operator appealed to the Planning Inspectorate (PI), which overturned the local decision in February 2022 after a 10-week inquiry. The climate issue is made difficult, by the absence of proper policy on aviation carbon for all of the UK, ignoring the cumulative impact of numerous airport expansions. It does not take into account local carbon budgets, or the non-CO2 climate impacts of aviation. There are also legal challenges under way, of the government’s inadequate “Jet Zero” strategy.
Click here to view full story…
Bristol Airport campaigners send video to Canadian teachers over expansion plans
Environmentalists trying to stop the expansion of airports in Bristol, London City and Copenhagen have stepped up their campaign – SOFAX (Stop OTPP Funding Airport Expansion) – with a direct message to the people who ultimately own all those airports – teachers in the Canadian province of Ontario. They have their pensions in the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan – or OTPP. See the video (6mins 30)The campaigns from Bristol, around London City Airport and 3 others around Europe, are directing their campaign at the 329,000 teachers and former teachers who work or worked in state schools in Ontario. They pay money into the OTPP, which years ago bought airports including Bristol and London City, as money-making investments. Both airports are trying to expand, increasing flights and carbon emissions. The new campaign has been organised by the UK’s biggest teachers union – the NEU – along with community and medical campaigners who live around the five airports owned or part-owned by OTPP. SOFAX is appealing to pensioners of OTPP to consider the local health and educational impacts of airports on children, as well as the climate impacts – making life in coming decades more uncertain.
Click here to view full story…
.
.
.
.