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Major inquiry into expansion of Bristol Airport opens
Bristol Airport’s lawyer has claimed restricting people’s ability to fly would have “profound” implications for society, as a 40-day inquiry into its expansion opened.
Michael Humphries QC said there was no doubt the airport would hit the proposed new cap of 12million passengers a year, up from the current limit of 10million – the only question was when.
He argued that the benefits of increased connectivity, prosperity and quality of life would outweigh the “relatively modest” environmental impacts.
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Humphries told the first day of the inquiry on Tuesday: “The government has made clear the importance it attaches to airports and their expansion.
“The merits of government policy are not a matter of debate for this local planning inquiry.”
Humphries continued: “To artificially restrict the ability of individuals to fly by deliberately constraining capacity as some have suggested would have profound implications in a free society.”
He added: “The concerns of North Somerset Council and other parties [about carbon emissions] are unfounded. Indeed, much of the evidence simply seeks to mount an attack on government policy or speculate as to what future policy may be.”
Humphries said 22,200 parking spaces was the minimum required to meet the demands of 12million annual passengers and will help to prevent unauthorised parking.
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Read more: Bristol Airport expansion rejected by North Somerset councillors
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Representing North Somerset Council – which rejected the expansion bid by 18 votes to seven last year – Reuben Taylor QC said airport bosses had overstated the benefits of the expansion and “woefully underestimated” the impact on the green belt of thousands of more car parking spaces.
He said: “Bristol Airport Ltd has failed to recognise the requirement to reduce the impacts on and maximise the benefits for local community affected by the operations.
“It’s almost as if the mitigation has been brought forward as an afterthought.
“The result is a scheme which imposes significant environmental cost, particularly in relation to noise disturbance at night, on a local community which then does not obtain any material benefit.”
Taylor said without an emissions cap for the aviation sector it is “simply too soon” to allow the expansion to proceed, and dismissed the airport’s claims it will become net zero as a “smokescreen” because they omit the emissions from aircraft.
The inquiry, described as a “marathon, not a sprint”, continues.
Campaigners continue to voice their opposition to the proposed expansion – photo courtesy of Extinction Rebellion
Main photo by Martin Booth
Stephen Sumner is a local democracy reporter for North Somerset
Read more: ‘The airport is the airport but the planet is more important’
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