The plans to gain approval to expand Bristol Airport (BRS/EGGD) have been dealt a fresh blow when Weston Town Council agreed to formally object.
The council made the decision to object to the expansion earlier this week and it followed protests by paid activist group Extinction Rebellion.
Bristol Airport has submitted an application to expand facilities at the airport to cater for 12 million passengers but several neighbouring councils are against the plans.
North Somerset Council is due to debate the proposals but it is unlikely a decision will come before 2020 due to the sheer number of comments and objections.
Over 3,700 objections have been submitted against the plans ranging from concerns about noise, traffic and climate change.
The plans have received around 1,800 letters of support.
Bath and North East Somerset Council are also opposing the plans citing that airport expansion is incompatible with its adoption of a “Climate Emergency”.
To counter many of the climate and ecological arguments the airport has said that it plans to become carbon neutral and has bought a six-hectare woodland which it says will be a replacement habitat for the protected Horsehoe Bats, something that Avon Wildlife Trust raised in its objections.
The expansion of the airport is centred around facilities such as Car Parking and infrastructure and does not include expansion to the runway.
There have been over 5,800 public comments on the planning application with objections such as:
“There is an impact locally on traffic, increase pollution and environment. There is also the wider picture to consider. We are facing catastrophic climate changes due to the burning of fossil fuels, we are working towards reducing carbon emissions in this country.”
“We villagers are very concerned about the impact expansion of the airport will have on our community and surrounding areas – there is simply not the infrastructure to sustain such a development, to say nothing of the resulting pollution, noise and chaos this would produce.”
You can view the airport’s plans in full here
