Councils are urged to reject airport expansion

URGENT talks will be held among the region’s council leaders and mayors after campaigners inundated them with demands to abandon support for Bristol Airport’s expansion.

Protesters want the West of England Combined Authority (Weca) to reverse its position backing the controversial plans because two of its three constituent local authorities Bristol and Bath and North East Somerset - are now publicly opposed to it.

Almost 150 statements and 24 questions on that topic alone were submitted to Weca committee’s public forum yesterday, with a succession of speakers pleading with members to change the combined authority’s stance.

They were told by metro mayor Tim Bowles and B&NES Council leader Cllr Dine Romero that discussions would take place to thrash out Weca’s official position.

In 2019, B&NES Council lodged a formal objection to the planning application to increase the airport’s capacity from 10 million to 12 million passengers a year and add thousands more car parking spaces.

Bristol City Council, which had previously expressed support, made a U-turn last month when full council passed a motion opposing the development because it was “incompatible” with the region’s carbon goals and “must not go ahead”.

As it stands, South Gloucestershire Council and the combined authority itself are in favour, with the area supporting thousands of aviation jobs, including industry giants Airbus and Rolls Royce.

North Somerset Council planning committee rejected the proposals last February, and the authority’s leader, Cllr Don Davies, told yesterday’s Weca meeting it would “robustly defend” the decision when the airport’s appeal against refusal is heard at a public inquiry in the summer.

Mr Bowles said: “Bristol Airport expansion is not an agenda item for today’s meeting, therefore we won’t be taking discussions on that.

“What I can assure everybody, though, is that as the mayors and leaders we are discussing this.”

The talks, between Mr Bowles, Bristol mayor Marvin Rees, Cllr Romero, Cllr Davies and South Gloucestershire Council leader Cllr Toby Savage, would have to take place ahead of the deadline for comments to be received by the Planning Inspectorate on February 22.