Airport campaigners seek flights cap
09.10.09
The main campaign group fighting the expansion of Bristol Airport has called for passenger numbers to be capped at 8 million a year if plans to expand the hub get the go ahead. In a dramatic concession, Stop Bristol Airport Expansion (SBAE) said yesterday that if the scheme did go ahead the limit on passengers would represent ‘a balanced approach’, the Evening Post reports. It has previously objected outright to any expansion of the airport.
The compromise came as members of North Somerset Council's North and Central planning committees debated the application at meetings in Weston-super-Mare yesterday. The airport falls within the South patch but councillors from the North and Central committees gave their views as official consultees on the plans. The South committee is to give its final decision on the application on December 9, with SBAE's concession seeming to indicate that a positive response is likely.
Hilary Burn, of SBAE, told the council meeting: ‘If councillors are not so minded to turn down the application, we request a capping of 8 million passengers per annum to allow the uncertainties of the development to be resolved. Growth above 8 million passengers per annum should not be allowed until the South Bristol Road Link and Bus Rapid Transit scheme have secured funding and been delivered.’
The airport is currently proposing an increase in passenger numbers to 10 million annually by 2019. Multi-storey car parks, a hotel, a new administration building and a newly expanded terminal are included in the application. SBAE say the capping can be made by controlling the number of new routes introduced each year.
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