North Somerset Council has opened a new public consultation to take account of further documentation submitted by the Airport for its appeal against the Council’s decision to refuse expansion. The consultation closes on January 6th. All comments will be passed to the Planning Inspectorate for consideration at the Appeal.
Planning reference: 20/P/2896/APPCON
1. QUICK and EASY COMMENT
If you don’t have the time (or expertise !) to review the new information in detail, simply tick the appropriate boxes on the Council website. Maybe comment on the difficulty of responding in detail over Christmas during a pandemic, and say that the new Airport data does not change your original objections to further expansion of Bristol Airport.
Go to the comment page on the North Somerset website [live link]
2. For a LONGER COMMENT you might like to personalise the following points:
You are writing in response to the new consultation on Bristol Airport’s application to expand to 12 mppa (million passengers per annum). The additional data requires more detailed analysis that is possible over the Christmas period during the pandemic. Nevertheless you have serious objections to this new submission.
These objections to further expansion include:
– an unacceptable increase in aircraft movements which will generate more noise day and night, impacting on the mental and physical health of local communities;
– further harm to health from toxic aviation emissions;
– air quality will also be polluted further by increased passenger and service traffic from all part of the region and beyond;
– further loss of green belt to boost capacity of profitable Airport car parks;
– more nuisances caused by unregulated car parking on rural lanes, obstructions to residents, and the many unauthorised sites;
– damage to protected wildlife and landscape environments;
– inappropriate rural site poorly served by public transport (no rail links) and little realistic chance of improvement.
In this era of environmental crisis the Airport can no longer be allowed to put profits before people and planet, nor to evade its responsibilities as a regional airport. We strongly support North Somerset Council’s evidence-based view that the detrimental effect of the expansion of the Airport and the wider impact on the environment outweigh the narrower economic benefits to Airport expansion, and that growth should only be considered once the airline industry has decarbonised and the public transport links to the airport are far stronger.
The Airport appeal places a further financial and administrative burden on the Council at a time when, during this pandemic, local resources are at breaking point. [Note 1]
For above reasons confirm objections to Bristol Airport’s application to expand to 12 mppa.
3 DEADLINE and LINKS
Comment on the latest Airport submissions will only be accepted until 6th January 2021. The appeal process will start on 11th January.
Go to the application on the North Somerset website [live link]
Notes
[1] North Somerset Council is in the process of sending out details of the consultation to everyone who commented on the Airport application. This involves approximately 10,000 emails, 1,000 letters, a press advertisement and site notices. Add in the legal costs and this misconceived appeal is placing a significant additional burden on the Council’s hard-pressed resources that should be supporting local community care and services in this time of a public health crisis.
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