Airport suffers planning setback
15.05.08
Plans to build a new passenger walkway with gates and lounges at Bristol Airport have hit a stumbling block. North Somerset councillors have said the structure should be subject to a full planning application.
The £7m, two-storey structure would be used to transfer passengers from the terminal building to waiting aircraft. It would provide 8 waiting areas for people ready to board. However, the Council has objected to the design and bulk of the structure and also the fact the walkway did not form part of the airport's Master Plan, which is meant to prevent any gradual development without full planning hearings.
The ruling is a partial victory for local campaigners, who claim the walkway would increase traffic and pollution. However, an airport spokesman said any other way of ferrying passengers from terminals to planes would be less green.
Bristol Airport Chief Executive Paul Kehoe, said: ‘This is a case of the wishes of a few outweighing the needs of the many; which is democracy working backwards. The walkway will not increase capacity, it will convey people from one place to another. If I line buses up, it will have the same impact, which is not an environmentally sound situation.'
‘This process does not replace the application for proper expansion of the airport. This was an operational building; the planning application for growth comes this autumn.’
However, the Stop Bristol Airport Expansion campaign group said that the scheme is part of a plan by the airport to ‘expand by stealth’. A spokesman said: ‘This will impact massively on local communities, with more traffic on local roads, more noise and more light pollution. More flights will add to North Somerset's contribution to the region's CO2 emissions.’
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