Bristol: Airport Master Plan for next 30 Years - Consultation

[Severn]

And here it is....

Bristol Airport intends to appeal planning decision

Bristol Airport has confirmed that it intends to appeal against North Somerset Council’s decision to refuse its planning application to increase capacity from 10 million to 12 million passengers per year. The decision to refuse the planning application was contrary to the recommendation of the...

www.bristolairport.co.uk

 

[TheLocalYokel]

And here it is....

Bristol Airport intends to appeal planning decision

Bristol Airport has confirmed that it intends to appeal against North Somerset Council’s decision to refuse its planning application to increase capacity from 10 million to 12 million passengers per year. The decision to refuse the planning application was contrary to the recommendation of the...

www.bristolairport.co.uk

I thought they would still go ahead with an appeal. Not to do so would have meant having a growing asset that could no longer grow because of a decision taken by unqualified people on a small local authority that acts for the entire region in respect of one of its major facilities.

Whatever a professional planning inspector decides or recommends to the secratary of state (if the latter decides to take the final decision) I will be entirely comfortable with. The matter will have been thoroughly examined via a public enquiry and the decision taken according to law and not according to the heart of local councillors, many of whom were elected to the council on an anti-airport expansion 'ticket', and I believe that many of them had decided to reject even before looking at the evidence.

If permission to expand is still refused then obviously the airport will have to live with the new situation in which it finds itself and its owners woud have a decision to make.

If the appeal is eventually allowed there will come a time when the airport goes back to the council for further expansion permission. That might prove more difficult but let's take one step at a time.

Perversely, the fall in passenger traffic brought about by the virus has given the airport some breathing space as it now won't be approaching its current 10 mppa cap for probably until at least two years later than the original 2021 projection.

Stand by for the baying ER mob, SBAE and fellow travellers. I expect some of them are pleased because it will provide a new focus with which to get themselves into the news again.

 

[Marko1]

Excellent news

 

[Seasider]

I wish them success.

 

[superking]

On local BBC points west this evening,they interviewed passengers going on holiday. They all agreed with the airport appeal except 1 person and he was totaly against it,yet he was going on holiday from the airport.To me that tells me one thing. Have the airport any where but not here,not worth saying much more about his comments.Good luck to the airport and we all wait with bared breath.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

On local BBC points west this evening,they interviewed passengers going on holiday. They all agreed with the airport appeal except 1 person and he was totaly against it,yet he was going on holiday from the airport.To me that tells me one thing. Have the airport any where but not here,not worth saying much more about his comments.Good luck to the airport and we all wait with bared breath.

A number of local councillors, including some who voted to reject the airport's planning application, have said publicly that they are not against BRS per se and use it. The councillor who led the motion to reject said afterwards that the airport is an important facility for the region. However, these people believe that it's big enough and busy enough already and don't want it to grow further. Liam Fox, the local MP, said the same thing.

The passenger who was against expansion presumably is of the same opinion.

Wrington Parish Council is against airport expansion yet a few years ago helped set up a successful twinning organisation with a small town in the French Languedoc that began solely on the basis of convenient travel between the two based on Ryanair's Beziers route. Without that route the twinning would never have been considered.

Many people understandably view these attitudes as hypocrisy.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Bristol's airport aspirations are 'unappealing'

Bristol Airport Action Network (BAAN) has said it was disappointed with the airport's decision to appeal

www.bristolpost.co.uk

Seems there is another group dedicated to opposing BRS expansion unless SBAE has changed its name.

 

[Aviador]

If we have any Twitter users on board, Forums4airports has been using hashtag #supportBRS on the site Twitter account. If you Tweet anything @Forums4airports we'll reTweet it.

 

[Seasider]

Bristol's airport aspirations are 'unappealing'

Bristol Airport Action Network (BAAN) has said it was disappointed with the airport's decision to appeal

www.bristolpost.co.uk

Seems there is another group dedicated to opposing BRS expansion unless SBAE has changed its name.

I wonder if they would be saying it was a waste of time appealing if the decision had gone the other way?

 

[superking]

I wonder if they would be saying it was a waste of time appealing if the decision had gone the other way?

Probably they would. You read what the guys comments when the tv station asked for comments. Reply was a good thing it got turned down,but he was flying off some where on holiday.A case of build it any where but not where i live.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

I wonder if they would be saying it was a waste of time appealing if the decision had gone the other way?

In 2011 the local authority (North Somerset unitary authority) approved BRS's previous major expansion application (the one that allowed it to handle up to the current 10 mppa). At that time the local authority was Conservative dominated. This year it was a 'rainbow council' with a large proportion of Lib-Dems, Greens and Independents who as a group would be likely to be anti-airport expansion, whatever the arguments to the contrary. The Conservatives on North Somerset council had been decimated at the 2019 local council elections.

In 2011 the opponents, notably StopBristolAirportExpansion (SBAE) that still exists, sought a Judicial Review of the council's decision at that time but were unsuccessful in their attempt.

They now say that the locally elected representatives' decision should be respected and not challenged, whereas in 2011 they were quite content to challenge the decision of the locally elected representatives. In short, if they like the decision it should be regarded as sacronsanct: if they don't like it they will try to move heaven and earth to have it changed.

 

[kraktoa]

I guess this was not in the master plan.

I knew something was up when the Covid19 testing site in the Silver Zone was moved away to another part of the site....a much smaller one.

To make way for..........drum roll.......A drive in Cinema.

As of first week in Sep 2020......a drive in cinema will be on site at the Silver Zone car park.

 

[Jerry]

To make way for..........drum roll.......A drive in Cinema.

As of first week in Sep 2020......a drive in cinema will be on site at the Silver Zone car park.

Good use of a car park not really being used! Clever out of the box thinking there!

 

[TheLocalYokel]

I guess this was not in the master plan.

I knew something was up when the Covid19 testing site in the Silver Zone was moved away to another part of the site....a much smaller one.

To make way for..........drum roll.......A drive in Cinema.

As of first week in Sep 2020......a drive in cinema will be on site at the Silver Zone car park.

Seems to be a temporary event. There are others around the area and across the country generally.

The environmentalists won't like it - all those nasty muck-emitting cars just to watch a film.

Drive In Cinema: Cars at Bristol Airport

Pull up, sit back and enjoy a fully loaded drive in experience with stand up comedy, family games, bingo or silent car discos alongside 80’s classic and 2010’s blockbuster movies.

visitbristol.co.uk

Bristol Airport is revealed as the location for @TheDriveIn drive-in cinema

Six screenings take place in September, including Toy Story, Joker, Grease and Back to the Future

www.bristol247.com

 

[superking]

Seems to be a temporary event. There are others around the area and across the country generally.

The environmentalists won't like it - all those nasty muck-emitting cars just to watch a film.

Drive In Cinema: Cars at Bristol Airport

Pull up, sit back and enjoy a fully loaded drive in experience with stand up comedy, family games, bingo or silent car discos alongside 80’s classic and 2010’s blockbuster movies.

visitbristol.co.uk

Bristol Airport is revealed as the location for @TheDriveIn drive-in cinema

Six screenings take place in September, including Toy Story, Joker, Grease and Back to the Future

www.bristol247.com

I wonder what the charge will be to watch films. Hope they dont ove charge r it will be over before it starts.

 

[superking]

A planned demonstration march from Felton common to the airport is planned for saturday the 29th. Its being organised by the community enviroment rebellion groups. The theme of the march is death.They say it will be a distance march and single file due to covid 19.They are expecting a large amount of objectors to turn up. Be of intereast if they do what they say with the restrictions going on.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

A planned demonstration march from Felton common to the airport is planned for saturday the 29th. Its being organised by the community enviroment rebellion groups. The theme of the march is death.They say it will be a distance march and single file due to covid 19.They are expecting a large amount of objectors to turn up. Be of intereast if they do what they say with the restrictions going on.

Extinction Rebellion is also planning a series of climate-change events in Bristol itself this weekend, including shutting some central area roads. It's part of a number of similar actions they intend taking in other cities in the UK.

When they were in Bristol just over a year ago for five days of demonstrations one of their stunts was the closure of the M32 for several hours. This time I think their focus is more on roads around the Harbourside.

As to the airport Mourning Procession on Saturday, the ER organisers say it will be single-file and they will comply with social distancing. We'll see. The airport is private property so it could stop the protestors from entering the airport site but that might be counter-productive within the overall scheme of things - the only danger would be some idiots trying to go beyond a peaceful demonstration. Probably better for the airport to tacitly accept that it recognises opposing points of view in a democracy.

 

[superking]

With the protest saturday. It will make me wonder how many will be local. But then some people will protest on any thing and where ever. If you can look at the weston mercury Localyokel and can look at the letters page,its very intereasting what has been written. I tried to copy and for some reason i cant get it to forward on.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

With the protest saturday. It will make me wonder how many will be local. But then some people will protest on any thing and where ever. If you can look at the weston mercury Localyokel and can look at the letters page,its very intereasting what has been written. I tried to copy and for some reason i cant get it to forward on.

Protest against Bristol Airport’s expansion appeal planned for this weekend

A protest against Bristol Airport’s decision to appeal its rejected planning application will take place this...

www.thewestonmercury.co.uk

This is the article in the Weston Mercury. Scrolling well down beneath the end of the article comes to the public replies section to it but currently there doesn't seem to be any.

I doubt that the majority of the demonstrators will walk or cycle to the location.

It's true as the group's spokesman says that there were 'overwhelming public objections' to the airport's planning application but those were formal objections by the committed, and not all were from locals by any stretch of the imagination.

A YouGov poll carried out just before the council planning committee considered the application last February showed around 70% in favour of the expansion plans. Those polled were the public at large in the West Country, not the committed opponents who were the ones who formally objected. This percentage is broadly in line with that which has occurred down the years when the local news media have conducted straw polls into the airport's expansion plans at various times.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

I meant to add to my last post that these sorts of demonstrations will cut no ice with the planning inspector appointed to deal with the airport's appeal. He or she will act purely from a legal perspective, taking into account the law and planning policies of the local and national governments.

North Somerset Council's own professional planning officers concluded that the application met these tests and recommended approval. If the planning inspector comes to the same conclusion the appeal will be allowed although it's likely that the secretary of state will 'recover' the appeal and make the final decision himself with the planning inspector's recommendations taken into account although not binding on the minister. Therefore, in the end it might come down to a political decision.

The national headquarters of the Planning Inspectorate happens to be at Temple Quay, Bristol but that will add no weight to the matter either way.