Bristol Airport has cleared a legal hurdle in the way of its proposed multi-million-pound expansion, but campaigners against the scheme say they will continue their fight. In January the High Court ruled that the airport's major expansion plans could go ahead following a lengthy legal battle, but a group called Bristol Airport Action Network appealed against the decision.
But today (Thursday, May 18) Bristol Airport announced that the appeal had been "refused on all grounds". A ruling found that there was not "real prospect of success" and no other compelling reason for the Court of Appeal to entertain an appeal. Bristol Airport’s plans to expand its maximum capacity from 10m to 12m passengers a year, had initially been refused planning permission by North Somerset Council in January 2020.
The airport's owner Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan later appealed to the Government, and the decision was overturned by the Planning Inspectorate in February 2022. The Bristol Airport Action Network (BAAN) had since been seeking various legal routes, including the High Court appeal, to try and overturn the Government's U-turn decision.
READ MORE: Bristol Airport expansion campaigners protest outside court showdown
Bristol Airport has welcomed today's decision to reject the appeal, however BAAN has voiced concerns that it now means there is no longer any legal impediment to stop the airport ‘ignoring the huge majority of local opinion and democratic institutions that have rejected the airport’s plans’.
In a statement Bristol Airport said: “Bristol Airport welcomes the court’s decision to uphold the planning permission to increase Bristol Airport’s capacity from 10m to 12m passengers per annum providing enhanced customer facilities for the region’s gateway for air travel.
"The decision is excellent news for our region’s economy, allowing us to create thousands of new jobs in the years ahead and open-up new direct links, and support inbound tourism. We will now take forward our multi-million-pound plans for net zero operations by 2030 and look forward to working with stakeholders and the community to deliver responsible growth.”
A statement from BAAN slammed the decision saying it ‘defied local opinion’. The statement said: “The airport can now expand by an extra two million passengers a year, build a multi-storey car park on Greenbelt land, massively increase the number of summer night flights and congest the local roads with an extra 10,000 cars a day. These plans shows clearly that Bristol Airport simply put profit above any consideration of the climate and ecological crisis, or the considerations of local people and it is impossible for them to pretend otherwise.”
“On the face of it, because the airport has ultimately been given permission, it may look like this campaign has been a waste of time and effort but in fact this could not be further from the truth.”
The group said by continuing to fight the expansion decision it had delayed the airport's plans by four years, which they say has saved four million tonnes of carbon and other emissions.
Stephen Clarke, one of the co-ordinators of BAAN said the group is ‘not going away’. He said: “We know, because they have told us many times, that Bristol Airport have plans to expand from the current ten million passengers a year to twenty million. They now know clearly that the vast majority of local people and politicians will be steadfastly against this but in view of their actions to date that is unlikely to stop them pushing forward with their destructive plans.
"Therefore, we shall be vigilant and wait for their next planning application. We do not expect the wait to be very long and again, we will do everything we can to stop them. I am naturally very disappointed and angry about this decision. It now seems very clear to me that the planning system concerning airport expansion has been rigged by the government to ignore the climate crisis."
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