Region’s leaders and mayors to have talks over Bristol Airport

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 & North East Somerset (B&NES) – are now publicly opposed to it.

Almost 150 statements and 24 questions on that topic alone were submitted to WECA committee’s public forum on Friday, January 29, 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 councillor 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 ten 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 councillor Don Davies told Friday’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.

The expansion of Bristol Airport continues to be debated. Photo: Bristol Aiport

Jackie Head, one of the public speakers, told the committee: “You have a moral duty to represent the members of WECA. Among your ranks now there are more people against the airport than for it.

“I am calling on you as WECA to use any methods you can – the emergency powers of Covid if need be – to reverse your decision, to comment on the consultation that is now in place, in order to represent truly your area.”

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.

“We will be meeting to talk about the points that people are making and we will then look to come back and make some comments in the future.”

Romero said: “We will absolutely be discussing this between us as mayors and leaders and coming to a conclusion.”

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

Davies said: “There is a commitment this will be discussed by mayors and leaders. But clearly North Somerset is not part of WECA.

“We decided as a newly elected council to refuse the application, largely driven by people of North Somerset’s views that the airport was big enough in its original capacity. As a council we will be robustly defending the appeal.”

What the expanded airport could look like. Image: Bristol Airport

After the meeting WECA overview and scrutiny committee chairman and Bristol Green Stephen Clarke said:

“WECA needs to reflect the views of its members. B&NES and Bristol are now officially against the expansion plans so WECA must be as well.

“Mayor Bowles should write to the Planning Inspectorate to object on behalf of WECA before the forthcoming deadline of February 22.

“It is very clear that there is very little support for the airport’s absurd plans in the region as we all work hard to do something about the climate and ecological crisis.”

In a written response to several public questions, WECA said: “The combined authority was a statutory consultee to the original planning application in our role as a neighbouring local transport authority and it was in this capacity that we submitted a response at that time to North Somerset Council.

“As transport authority, we continue to work with North Somerset Council and Bristol Airport in improving public transport access to the airport and to deliver the joint ambition to substantially reduce carbon emissions from surface transport access to the airport and the wider region.

“The combined authority has recognised the critical need to address the impact of climate change and formally declared a climate emergency in July last year.

Many have campaigned against the expansion. Photo: Aphra Evans

WECA added: “We are committed to achieving carbon neutrality by 2030, and consideration of climate change impacts are being embedded into every aspect of the combined authority’s work and activities.

“Through our local industrial strategy and regional recovery plan we are actively supporting investment in the decarbonisation of aviation with our world-leading firms in the region, with the ambition of being the vanguard of the development of the technology necessary for net-zero aviation, which will help accelerate a reduction in carbon emissions regionally, nationally and internationally.

“A climate emergency action plan has been approved and is now being implemented.”

Adam Postans is a local democracy reporter for Bristol.

Main image: Bristol Airport

Read more: How the legal fight on Bristol Airport will play out in 2021