North Somerset Council released this statement in response to the Inspectors’ disappointing decision to allow further expansion at Bristol Airport.
I am proud to have been one of eighteen councillors who voted to reject the airport’s application to expand at a special meeting of the Planning and Regulatory Committee in February 2020.
Bristol Airport has appealed the decision and a public inquiry will be heard in July.
Bristol Airport is a successful airport. It has an existing permission dating back to 2011 to increase passenger numbers to 10 million passengers a year. The airport now wants to increase this to 12 million… with a masterplan to move towards 19 million over the next 25 years. Expansion on this scale would appear to be incompatible with the action we need to take in the face of a climate emergency.
- The airport flight path particularly impacts residents in Claverham and those who live at the southern end of Yatton. I will work with others committed to striking a fairer deal with the airport so that they take responsibility for their environmental impact – this includes noise reduction, not just mitigation.
We all need to take some personal responsibility, too. We should be flying less, not more. Of course, we can still have a holiday – 70 per cent of flights are taken by 15 per cent of people.
- I am in favour of a frequent flyer levy.
Return flights I have taken:
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