A North Somerset Council South Area Committee is set to decide on the controversial expansion of Bristol International Airport at a meeting this Wednesday [3rd March]. Officers at North Somerset Council have recommended the expansion be approved.

The plans involve the expansion of the terminal building and an increase in flight numbers. Environmental groups across the region are campaigning against this expansion, which will lead to a massive rise in carbon emissions.

Bath’s Lib Dem MP Don Foster joined other Lib Dem MPs across the region asking for the planning decision to be called in by the government. Don said,

The expansion plans for Bristol International Airport are clearly of a regional importance, and therefore should be called-in for the government to determine. What we need to see is real investment in high-speed rail links, not an increasing number of internal flights which will be highly damaging to the environment. The last major planning application for the airport, in 1991, was called-in, and I believe there is every reason for this application to be heard by the Planning Inspectorate.

Local Councillor Roger Symonds (Lib Dem, Combe Down) added,

We don’t need an expansion to Bristol International Airport. It will be hugely damaging to the environment, not just in terms of flights, but extra journeys to and from the airport. The road through Chew Magna would see a major increase in traffic. Those in favour seem to think that the expansion is vital to increasing the number of jobs in the region, but this simply isn’t true. The airport is taking more people out of the region on leisure visits than it is bringing in for business. I am grateful to Don for writing to the Minister, but my first hope is that North Somerset Council reject this application.

Bath & North East Somerset Council’s Development Control Committee, in September 2009, has opposed expansion, passing a motion proposed by Lib Dem Councillor Nicholas Coombes. However, Conservative councillors on B&NES Council have been criticised for favouring expansion. All but one Conservative councillor on the planning committee voted in favour of airport expansion and in May 2009 Conservatives forced through an amendment watering down a Lib Dem-led motion calling for opposition to expansion.