Airport planning application 17 Aug deadline
Thursday, July 30th, 2009
Bristol Airport has now submitted it planning application to North Somerset Council. This is for new buildings and car parks which will potentially increase the number of passengers each year to 10 million, from current levels of just over 6 million. You can comment on the application by visiting the NSC website the deadline is 17 August. The Airport claims that expansion will bring billions of new investment into the South West and lots of jobs. It could just be a major construction project with no long term benefit – given the economic situation, the energy crunch and the need to cut greenhouse gas emissions. The paperwork for the application runs to some 2,000 pages. Hidden in amongst it all is information that the carbon footprint of the flights will grow 2.5 times over, because of a 60% increase in passengers and more long haul. This will mean that the airport’s flights will have equivalent carbon footprint to the whole of the City of Bristol. Lip service is paid to ‘sustainability’ ie generation of a proportion of the site energy requirements by a wind turbine, and changes to the on-site road layout so cars will drive a few hundred meters less once they reach the airport site.
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