To whom it may concern
The “Leeds Bradford Airport Support Group” was set up in the 1980s to represent the views of the public who support Leeds Bradford Airport (LBA) and its development, and recognise its importance to the City of Leeds, Leeds City Region & West Yorkshire. We have been represented on the Airport Consultative Committee for the past 30 years.
As the aviation industry slowly recovers from the Covid Pandemic (which it will), it will be very much as case of survival of the fittest as far as both airports and airlines are concerned. Those airports which are not able to meet the standards required today by both airlines and passengers, will struggle to recover. With a 56 year old terminal, LBA falls short in many ways, in particular with disabled access, baggage reclaim, seating capacity and the lack of space to resolve these issues, LBA is likely to struggle and go into decline unless the new terminal is built and the daytime/night time flying hours are amended to fall in line with other regional airports.
We have seen the likes of Extinction Rebellion and local anti aviation group’s whip up opposition through deliberate misrepresentation of what LBA is planning and the impact on the environment. These are old tactics we have seen in the past. Claims that the plans include a new runway, may be untrue, but people believe such claims and then object based on these fabrications. We are pleased therefore to see that the Council's own Consultants provide evidence to enable the Planning Officer to recommend approval.
In order to try and give a voice to the many people who support the terminal development, we set up an online petition in early December 2020 through the Change.org website which can be found at the following link:
www.Change.org/LBASupportgroup
In normal times we could have used other methods to demonstrate support but due to Covid restrictions and lockdowns it has prevented us from doing so. Nonetheless the petition as of today has been signed by 1,652 people. We consider this fairly represents the volume of support for the airport development, we would like to draw attention to a recent survey carried out by the Wharfedale Observer website over the 4th/5th February, which asked its readers whether they support the airport terminal development or not. At closure of the survey, 594 people voted, of which 75% were in favour of the airport.
We are currently running surveys on our social media platforms asking people if they support approval of LBA’s new terminal.
As of 11:30 on Tuesday, February 9th show as follows
Twitter = 62 votes cast
Yes = 90.3%
No = 9.7%
Facebook =
261 votes castLBA Support Group
Do you agree that Leeds City Council should on Thursday, February 11th approve the planning application for Leeds Bradford Airports new £150 million Terminal Building?www.facebook.com
Yes = 95%
No = 5%
Yorkshire Post business editor Mark Casci posted in his article dated Feb 8th 2021 “That rejecting Leeds Bradford Airport plan will condemn us to a second rate international standing, it must be approved” we agree with this, the new Terminal is a once in a generation opportunity for us to have an airport to be proud of.
The rejection of this could result in LBA's ultimate decline which would have negative impact on the economy of the Leeds City Region and West Yorkshire. It will not result in a reduction in air travel, nor a reduction in CO2 as other airports like Manchester & Doncaster-Sheffield will simply increase their operations to pick up the slack. They will be more traffic on the A1 & M62 to those airports and the CO2 generated as a result will increase. Meanwhile West Yorkshire will be left on the side-lines with an airport that gives a very poor impression to visitors. We hope the Leeds City Council approve this application to allow the airport to build a world class terminal and grow as previously anticipated when they approved the 2019 Terminal Extension. Together with the Parkway Station, this new terminal will turn LBA into an airport we can all proud of,
The Director of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, Henri Murison said when he appeared on BBC Look North, Monday, Feb 8th 2021 that this project will generate employment for 100’s of local construction workers, if building commences later this year and Aviation jobs in the future. It also has the backing of local politicians like Tracy Barbin whom is the Labour party candidate for West Yorkshire mayor l and the leader of Bradford Council Susan Hinchcliffe
Yorkshire Post article dated Feb 8th 2021
Rejecting Leeds Bradford Airport plan will condemn us to a second rate international standing - Mark Casci
The 2012 Olympic Games, the M62 and the London Underground were all conceived of at differing points in our country’s recent history but share one common factor – they were aggressively opposed.www.yorkshirepost.co.uk
It's the BBC. Why would they? They have an anti airport and climate change agenda, so don't want nasty aeroplanes. Not in these parts anyway.
It doesn't matter if there are 280 wanting to object, the maximum time for support and objectors is 12 minutes in total, at 2 minutes each, so 6 can speak or 12 if they gabble. The objectors will all say the same thing anyway. We could do with one more though to use up the allocated 12 minutes.
Dunno. I would bet money though on Foren being one that gets the nod. Probably our poor excuse for an MP, Sobel too. I hope LBA have lined up some big hitters from the Chamber of Commerce, Welcome to Yorkshire, etc. They carry far more weight than members of the public.
All points we put in our email to councillors when sending the petition.
Meant to say only in doubt if MORE than six apply!
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