Stop Bristol Airport Expansion (SBAE)

[Aviador]

[textarea]Bristol Airport campaigners claim Heathrow court ruling will block expansion

Campaigners opposed to the £150 million expansion of Bristol Airport claim the plans could be thrown out in the light of a High Court ruling on the third runway at Heathrow. Anti-expansion groups say a judge's ruling that the Government should rethink its support for a proposed runway in the light of its own policy on climate change will also apply to plans to develop Bristol too.

The campaigners say the decision by Lord Justice Carnwath throws the 2003 Aviation White Paper – the policy document that called for expansion of Heathrow, Bristol and other airports around the country – into doubt. However, Bristol Airport bosses have rejected the claims, and insist the High Court case is ‘very specific’ to Heathrow.

Lord Justice Carnwath said the Government's policy support for a third runway, made in 2003 and confirmed in January last year, will need to be looked at again - meaning a new White Paper and consultations, which could take years - in the light of the Climate Change Act 2008, which sets targets for emissions. The judge said he was not able to hold that the points raised amounted to a ‘show-stopper – in the sense that the only rational response would be to abandon the whole project’ and refused to quash the Government's decision to ‘confirm policy support’ for a third runway.

Source[/textarea]

 

[News Guru]

[textarea]Campaigners paint field in Bristol Airport protest

A giant mural of an airport runway has been painted in a field near the M5 by environmental campaigners to highlight their campaign for greater local consultation on planning projects, the Evening Post reports. The 70 metre-long (230ft) image is in a field between junctions 14 and 15. With the words ‘Planning Approved’ stamped across it, the mural was commissioned by Beautiful Britain magazine, was made using biodegradable paint and is expected to last for six weeks.

The magazine said it was concerned the wishes of local communities were being ignored by central government in an attempt to meet national targets. Editor Rob Yarham said: ‘We want to highlight the threat to those environments posed by ill-considered and rushed planning decisions.
We chose a runway because many of those involve transport infrastructure.'

Source[/textarea]

 

[TheLocalYokel]

The other side of the airport nuisance debate from villagers who have lived in the area most of their lives and not the champagne luvlies of SBAE and its acolytes, many of whom don't even live in the Bristol area.

I had to smile at the recollections of the coal merchant who is about my vintage. His memory of having no transport and living your life entirely in the village is certainly not mine. I grew up in a neighbouring village and by the late 1950s most of us older teenagers had motor bikes with a lucky few the proud possessors of cars. We certainly were not restricted to our villages.

[textarea]Peace at last – but now we're missing our noisy planes


Everything seems peaceful in the village of Felton.

With the few dozen homes clustered around Felton Common, the only sound over the past few days is the gentle rustle of wind in the gorse and the sound of a dog walker talking to her over-excited collie.

You might say, if you visited this past weekend, that Felton looks like any other quiet rural community in the West Country.

But all this peace and quiet is unusual for the good folk of Felton, and it was back to normal yesterday.

With Bristol Airport just a few hundred yards away over the hill, this is a community that over the past half centuryhas grown used to the almost constant sound of aeroplanes.

But thanks to a mischievous volcano in Iceland, and a conspiring north wind, for a few precious days, Bristol Airport – and the village of Felton – have fallen eerily silent.

"It's extraordinarily quiet," says 85-year-old Constance Codrington, who has lived on the side of Felton Common for 26 years.

"We've had a very peaceful weekend.

"We've never known anything like it.

"But to be honest," she adds, with a melancholy glance up to the empty blue skies, "you actually get used to the planes.

"After a couple of months living here, you stop hearing them.

"It's actually only when visitors come here, and they comment on the noise from the jets, that your brain focuses back in on them.

"We've noticed the sound of the engines much more this weekend by their absence, much more so than we normally would have done."

But not everyone is happy about the volcanic ash cloud, hanging invisibly thousands of feet above the village.

Dave Nelson, landlord of the George and Dragon, has spent a weekend alone behind the bar of his charming whitewashed inn.

"Business was absolutely dead," he confesses gloomily.

"We're dependent on the business from airport users. All five of our bedrooms are empty and have been all weekend.

"Normally the place would be filled with holidaymakers and businessmen waiting for their early flights.

"Though we've had one or two locals having a drink in the bar, we've sold no meals at all – that's also very much a passing trade, with people getting off flights and heading straight here for something to eat.

"In fact, since the start of the crisis, I'd say at best we've taken 25 per cent of what we would usually take over a normal weekend."

Resident Gordon Carpenter also says he is looking forward to the planes returning to the skies above his home.

"I've lived here 10 years, and I love watching the planes," he says.

"It's interesting to see them coming in and out all the time.

"I lost my wife of 61 years just three weeks ago," he adds.

"So it's a difficult time for me. Taking the planes out of the skies makes the place seem cruelly quiet."

He looks once more to the empty blue skies, before carrying on with his daily walk.

Coal merchant Robert Wedlake is a bit more cheerful about the unusual peace and quiet that has descended over the village.

"It's a bit more tranquil than normal," the 64-year-old says.

"But it's not so much the sound of the aeroplanes – we're well used to that – it's the effect it has had on all the roads.

"With nobody going in and out of the airport, the roads are quiet.

"The absence of taxis is particularly welcome – they're generally mad drivers at the best of times."

Robert is certainly used to living in the shadow of the airport. He has lived at Felton Common since the age of 13, when he moved in next door to future wife Noreen – it's literally a girl-next-door love story.

"We didn't have transport in those days," he chuckles. "You had to live your lives within the village.

"For us, the airport has always been there in the background.

"Noreen and I went along to the celebrations on the day that the airport opened when we were 14 years old," Robert says.

"And now, here we are, still living in the house where Noreen was born.

"But over the years the numbers of aircraft have gone up and up.

"Still, somehow, to have them suddenly taken away is strange."

Across the other side of the common, somebody else is concerned by the absence of aeroplanes.

Max, a four-year-old Border Collie, is brought here every day by his owner June Bailey.

"He loves chasing the aeroplanes as they fly in overhead," the 66-year-old from Bedminster Down explains.

"He will run for as far as he can trying to keep up with the aeroplanes as they land, and when they finally get away from him, he turns around and comes back to me.

"So Max has certainly noticed the absence of planes," she adds.

"He's looking very fed up today."[/textarea]

http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/news/Pea ... ticle.html

 

[Aviador]

the coal merchant who is about my vintage

It's always a pleasure to read your comments 'TheLocalYokel'!

Yes they're out in full force after the recent troubles caused by the volcanic ash. The local ITV company up here went out to interview people who live close to the airport. One said it was blissfully quiet, another said the silence was deafening. I visited my parents who live close to the airport and my farther hadn't even noticed that flights had restarted so I don't know where these other people are living?

 

[TheLocalYokel]

It was reported in the local press this week that the major planning application will now be heard by the local authority (North Somerset Unitary Authority) main planning committee on Monday 24 May 2010.

It was adjourned earlier this year and it was originally thought the decision date would be 28 April (yesterday).

No doubt this has been adjourned until after the general election in the hope that a new government might be elected that has a different view on the local airport expansion plans that are based on Labour's White Paper of several years ago.

The Conservative shadow transport secretary was lukewarm towards the plans when asked by the local press a few months ago.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

SBAE will still not lie down.

Affronted by the North Somerset Council's decision to approve BRS's major £150 million expansion plans this disparate group of unlikely bedfellows is renewing its demand that the Sec of State should call in the application for a public enquiry.

Just in case he doesn't SBAE is seeking public donations to enable it to build a fund with which to legally challenge the council's decision.

They're not so daft then. They know that if they were lose such a challenge they could be facing a big legal bill. Better to spend other people's money than your own.

The Bristol Evening Post, always doing its bit to stick the knife into the airport's vitals, has most helpfully printed an address to which cheques can be sent and a link to a Paypal facility.

 

[Aviador]

Their silence 'was' golden! I can't see many people taking up their begging request, that is unless the Bristol Evening Post and the other village newspaper want to donate to their cause.

 

[News Guru]

[textarea]Campaigners ‘disappointed’ at Bristol Airport expansion approval

The spokeswoman for a group opposed to the expansion of Bristol Airport has said it hopes to challenge the decision to give the plans the go-ahead. The comment comes after it was announced on Friday that the Government has decided not to 'call in' the plans, which had already been approved by North Somerset Council, meaning that the airport can now proceed with its £150m expansion.

Hilary Burn, of the Stop Bristol Airport Expansion group, said the Council and Government had not taken on board the views of the local community on the impact on traffic, carbon emissions, global warming and the loss of green belt, adding: ‘The news is exceptionally disappointing.’

She said that noise levels from about 90 flights a day and more night flights would also be an issue, and that: ‘we will be seeking to look for a challenge in future. ‘Twelve hectares of green belt are going to be car parking, which should really remain as green field. It is completely against the government and North Somerset's policies.’

Bristol Airport said the decision was ‘a vote of confidence’ in the council's consultation process. Construction could start in 2011.

Source[/textarea]

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Not directly to do with SBAE but closely connected.

Wrington is a large village two miles from Bristol Airport (as the crow flies) and the airport is situated within its parish.

The parish council and a number of Wrington self-appointed leading villagers have been dead set against airport expansion and some are members of SBAE.

So what happens when a small town in the Languedoc region of France, on the look-out for a twinning partner in the UK, spots that there are regular flights between its local airport at Beziers and Bristol Airport which they discover is just up the road from Wrington?

Meetings and visits are arranged between the Languedoc and North Somerset with the result that a full-blown twinning agreement was signed this afternoon.

So all the people against expansion of the airport take full advantage of its presence without which the French town would have shown no interest in Wrington whatsoever.

I grew up in Wrington when it really was a small village but in the past half a century it's grown to become almost a small town with the opponents of the airport almost entirely to be found amongst the newcomers. Traditional village families are in the main in favour of the airport because it brings work to the community.

The Beziers route seems to be doing well anyway - Ryanair increased it from 4 x weekly to 5 x weekly during the summer with two rotations on Saturdays.

[textarea]Wrington prepares to say Bienvenue à Villeneuve-lès-Béziers

It all began when Villeneuve-lès-Béziers, in the Herault Languedoc region of France, were looking for a compatible English community with whom to set up a twinning relationship.

As there are several flights a week between Béziers and Bristol airports, they naturally searched this area of the country. They discovered the Wrington website and apparently liked what they saw of the village and its activities. A message from Yves Blérard Léglise, Assistant Secretary in charge of General Administration at City Hall, to the website inviting Wrington parish council to consider a twinning arrangement was duly passed on.

On Wrington’s acceptance, Villeneuve proposed a symbolic signing of a simple Declaration of Friendship to be carried out in both communities. Wrington invited 4 representatives from Villeneuve, including Yves, to come for the weekend of 9th - 11th October. Sunday morning will be taken up with showing them Wrington and the Mendip area, and the signing ceremony will take place at 4.30pm in the Memorial Hall. It is hoped as many village organisations, businesses and individuals as possible will come for the very brief ceremony, followed by an opportunity to talk about potential common interests with members of the party.

The Villeneuve party will comprise the Mayor, M. Jean-Paul Galonnier, the Deputy-Mayor concerned with communication and tourism, Mme Eléna Cros, the Councillor in charge of twinning, Mme Emmanuelle Nardini, and Yves Blérard Léglise. It is felt the twinning arrangement will work best ‘from the ground up’, with members of the two communities finding interests in common, each wanting to find out more about the other, and making their own decisions about how best to develop their relationships.

To this end, the signing event will include small displays from those organisations and firms attending, and particular importance is placed on the one by Wrington School, whose International Administrator, Annabel Scot, has already received a warm response from the Head of Villeneuve primary school.[/textarea]

http://www.wrington.net/webarchive/2010/twinlaunch.htm

 

[TheLocalYokel]

I read in the local Chew Valley (lovely name as is Lulsgate Bottom the location of BRS) free newspaper this week that SBAE has certainly not given up its fight to stop the expansion of Bristol Airport.

They are in the throes of taking detailed legal advice re seeking a judicial review into the secretary of state's decison not to 'call in' the planning approval granted by the local authority.

SBAE has been collecting money for several years for this sort of thing. They must have quite a war chest because if they lost a judicial review they could well be ordered to pay all the costs as well as their own and that could amount to tens of thousands of pounds.

 

[News Guru]

[textarea]Protestors want more flight path fines

FINES are not being enforced on aircraft which break noise limits or fly off course, according to protestors at the centre of a planning row with Bristol Airport.

Residents and members from the Stop Bristol Airport Expansion (SBAE) group say the flight tracker system, which was introduced earlier this year to record flight paths and should lead to a system of fines for noise and flight path violations, will result in few if any penalties for airlines bending the rules.

Spokesman Hilary Burn said no fines have been enforced on any airline, despite complaints from residents living directly under the airport flight path.

Ms Burn said: “There is little incentive for airlines to keep to flight paths or the correct height. The tracker system is just an information system to give the position of any given flight.

“It appears completely pointless to complain about noise or flight paths – yet aircraft movements are set to rise substantially when the airport expands.”

A spokesman from Bristol Airport said it fully investigates all complaints received from residents and where aircraft do deviate from the agreed flight paths, an explanation of the ?circumstances is requested from the records kept by air traffic control.

He added: “This happens rarely and, in most cases, any deviation from agreed tracks is a result of action taken for safety reasons in order to avoid severe weather or military aircraft in the area.”

Source[/textarea]

 

[TheLocalYokel]

The Stop Bristol Airport Expansion group's website that was dormant since last June has sprung back into life in the past month.

They've put in a couple of blogs, one criticising the BRS CEO for complaining about aviation's lot vis-a-vis taxation and the other saying they were right all the time about the expansion because the government has said Labour's 2003 aviation White Paper was flawed and this was what the BRS expansion was based upon.

They are either extremely naive or have chosen to overlook the fact that politics is all about denigrating political opponents, and the government's own secretary of state has chosen to allow the BRS expansion plans to go ahead without recourse to a public enquiry.

Although there is still a begging bowl for funds within their web site it does seem that the group has accepted they can go no further in opposing the approved expansion - they are well out of time for asking for a judicial review unless they could show exceptional circumstances which seems highly unlikely.

Unless of course they've been on the prowl to see if the expansion site sits on the nesting grounds of the brown throated, greater spotted Nempnett Thrubwell mock turtle, a protected species in grave danger of extinction and not seen in the Mendips since 1277.

So it appears they will now embark on a course of nitpicking any time anything they don't like involving the airport reaches the public domain.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

[textarea]New bid to block airport expansion

Campaigners who opposed Bristol Airport’s massive expansion plans are appealing to the high courts to block the development.

Pressure group Stop Bristol Airport Expansion (SBAE) failed last year in its efforts to persuade North Somerset Council to refuse planning permission for the expansion.

However, its members insist the fight goes on, and say they are ‘confident’ there is a strong legal case to halt plans they believe would harm the area.

Spokesman Jeremy Birch says the group has been encouraged by new Government policy on airports which describes previous guidelines as ‘fundamentally flawed’.

He said: “Our case concentrates on the economic case and the validity of the previous Government’s policy on airport expansion, on which Bristol Airport’s plans are based and which the Coalition has recently clearly said it opposes.

“It has condemned the previous policy as ‘fundamentally out of date’.

Airport bosses plan to double their terminal size to help passenger numbers grow from the current six million passengers a year to ten million in 2019.

It argues the expansion will have a significant positive effect on the South West economy.[/textarea]
http://www.thewestonmercury.co.uk/news/ ... n_1_875737

It's too late to apply for a judicial review into the secretary of state's decision not to call in the local authority's approval of the application, and that would really only deal with the mechanics of how the decsion was reached rather than the underlying circumstances.

I'm not sure how the High Court would react to a decision arrived at by the local councillors and rubber-stamped by the secretary of state who could have called it in if he thought it was based on a flawed policy of the previous government.

Seems like yet more money for lawyers IF the High Court entertains it.

 

[Aviador]

I had a feeling that this would happen. Do you think anything will come of it?

 

[TheLocalYokel]

It seems the application for the judicial review is in respect of the local authority's decision to grant planning permission rather than the secretary of state's decision not to call in the approval for public enquiry. I say seems because the SBAE isn't entirely explicit in its press utterances.

I still cannot understand how such an application can be made at this time because the law seems to be clear in that any application must be made within three months of the decision being challenged, unless the court allows additional time but this is in exceptional circumstances.

As the local authority made its decision almost 12 months ago and the sec of state made his over seven months ago (both decisions made public at those times) it seems the application ought to be out of time.

A court can decline an application for a judicial review although I suppose the spurned applicant could then appeal to a higher court against that decision (more time and more money for lawyers).

In practical terms the airport may well have signed off the section 106 payments with the local authority (about £5 million) and even appointed agents/contractors for the initial stages of the expansion. I'm assuming that's the reason for a time limit on judicial review applications. If it was left open-ended someone might spring up half through construction that might then have to be halted.

Assuming the judicial review goes ahead (I shall certainly be interested to learn how) it's impossible to guess outcomes when courts become involved. They can interpret legislation and facts in the most arcane way at times.

Both sides say they are confident of winning a judicial review. Well SBAE and the airport CEO do anyway because the local authority will be the target as it made the decision. The BRS CEO has pointed out the cost to local authority tax payers and the damage to the local economy if legal proceedings are protratcted.

It's clear now that locally a small minority of the usual suspects is trying to block the airport.They are supported by the likes of Friends of the Earth, the Protection of Rural England people and other similar bodies. Most people in the Bristol area, from polls conducted by various media outlets, favour expansion by about 70% to 30% (the voting ratio is pretty constant).

Bristol City FC has planning consent for a new football stadium and the finance to build it yet a small number of locals (22 gave evidence at an enquiry) are trying to secure the land (an old tip mainly) as a town green which means nothing could be built there. The inspector who held an enquiry has sided with the town green applicants to the astonishment of most people, including the applicants. The city council wants the land to become the new football stadium but may be legally compelled to register it as a town green.

So two of the biggest current developments in the Bristol area may be stopped because tiny minorities of activists oppose them.

At least they haven't taken to the streets yet as others have done in the past week who are opposed to a new Tesco in the city. Premises have been wrecked, numerous people injured (including many policemen), fires started and a cache of petrol bombs found in a squat. The area is known as the People's Republic of Stokes Croft. It's about half a mile from the main central shopping district and on Thursday night several hundred of the mainly hooded rioters tried to reach the new Cabot Circus shopping precinct and cause mayhem there.

Planning applications are a source of some difficulty in and around Bristol at the moment.

 

[alphagolf]

Do we have any timescale for this high court challenge or is this going to roll on and on? :crazy:

alphagolf

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Do we have any timescale for this high court challenge or is this going to roll on and on?

When the plan to seek a judicial review was announced about six weeks ago airport CEO Robert Sinclair was quoted:

However, the delay which could result unless a decision is reached swiftly will be costly to Bristol Airport, our passengers, and the economy of the South West – not to mention taxpayers in North Somerset who will foot the bill for the council's defence.

"Delaying our ability to develop and enhance the facilities required to maintain and improve the region's connectivity will have damaging economic consequences. It also prevents us from delivering urgent improvements for the millions of passengers who pass through the terminal every year.

There is more than a hint that the situation could be long drawn out, but it seems it's always in the court's gift to refuse to grant the judicial review application.

I'm sure that, like me, you read in the spring that the airport was intending to do some preparatory work this year on the expansion. I'm assuming that's currently on hold.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

[textarea]Bristol Airport campaign group win award from Bill Bryson

Local campaign group, Stop Bristol Airport Expansion (SBAE), has received national recognition for its work opposing the proposed plans to increase airport traffic at Bristol International Airport.

The group’s campaigning achievements were acknowledged by CPRE President Bill Bryson who presented them the Marsh Award for the Benefit of Rural England, accompanied by a cheque for £450. The prize was presented at the CPRE national AGM in London last week.

Stop Bristol Airport Expansion is a coalition of several local interest groups: the local (North Somerset) branch of the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE), Bristol Friends of the Earth and the Parish Council’s Airport Association (CPAA), which represents 24 Parishes neighbouring the airport.

Mr Bryson, CPRE’s President, said: “When I came to this country I fell in love with the unique character and eccentricities of England’s towns and countryside. It’s through the work of many volunteers and people like those receiving awards today that these endearing qualities will be preserved.

“In my work with CPRE I have often been struck by the amazing dedication and commitment shown by our volunteers. These extraordinary people finish their working week only to sit down and do another week’s worth in their spare time.”[/textarea]
http://www.bristol247.com/2011/07/18/br ... nt-page-1/

I thought that Bryson had gone back to live in America.

As he is clearly against airports I suppose he swims the Atlantic or uses a banana boat.

My wife is a fan of his books. I shall have to put a stop to that!!

 

[big g]

My wife is a fan of his books. I shall have to put a stop to that!!

Burn them all!............. hang on that's not PC and would damage the environment!

 

[Aviador]

My wife is a fan of his books. I shall have to put a stop to that!!

Burn them all!............. hang on that's not PC and would damage the environment!

He probably lives close to the airport. The old proverb "if you don't like the smell of pigs don't live next to a pig farm" springs to mind.