Top legal minds are already preparing the groundwork for a fight over the expansion of Bristol Airport this summer. 

North Somerset Council has promised a “robust defence” of its decision to reject the scheme to boost annual passenger

numbers to 12 million due to the impact on the environment and neighbouring communities. 

The fate of the plans will now be decided at a national level. For many, the story is not new. A decade ago, campaigners launched an ultimately unsuccessful challenge against an increase to the current cap of 10 million passengers per year. Unlike last time, the appeal will be considered at a four-week public inquiry due to start in July – allowing campaigners to bolster the Council’s position – and the environment is firmly on the agenda. 

Bristol Green Councillor, Stephen Clarke, from the Bristol Airport Action Network, one of the organisations that will speak at the hearing, said: “There are currently over twenty regional airports thinking about expanding. Bristol Airport is the first to go to a planning appeal. That makes it really important as a precedent. 

“There are quite a lot of international organisations that are helping us. We have the money we need to pay for a barrister and we have various experts. We’re putting together our case.” 

Bristol Airport said sustainable development has always been at the centre of its plan to become carbon neutral for direct emissions by 2025 and a net zero airport by 2050, and said it had proposed a “comprehensive package of measures” to minimise the adverse environmental impacts of an additional two million passengers per annum. 

Cllr Clarke said the aviation industry was relying on technological advances like electric or hydrogen power that may eventually improve fuel efficiency but will not be able to offset the extra 23,000 flights per year.

 

“We aren’t trying to close the airport or reduce the

capacity. We’re saying it’s big enough,” he said. “As a regional airport it shouldn’t be any bigger.”

Stephen Sumner, LDRS