Our reaction to the recent news of yet further expansion plans for Bristol Airport was summed up by our member Steve Clarke in this 24/7 article:
Further condemnation by Wrington councillor Tom Daw can be read in this article too:
At this very early point in fighting further expansion plans we’re asking as many people as possible to write to their MPs to protest about airport expansion and request that the government urgently re-view the ANPS (Airport National Policy Statement).
We feel that lobbying government for changes to national aviation policies could be our best route to stopping expansion.
Please copy (cc) us in on any emails at eyesonbristolairport@gmail.com.
If possible please also try to get an appointment to argue your case with your MP in person, especially if you live in North Somerset (MP Sadik Al-Hassan) or Weston-Super-Mare (MP Dan Aldridge) as we are hearing that they both need further persuading to understand resident’s objections.
Points that you could mention:
- The ANPS has not been amended since 2018, which means it does not include the UK’s legally binding net zero commitments or take into account the 2019 government declaration of a ‘climate emergency’.
- The Climate Change Committee’s 6th carbon budget recommends ‘demand management policies’ for airports e.g. reducing passenger demand for flying through carbon pricing, a frequent flyer levy, fuel duty, VAT or reforms to Air Passenger Duty, and/or restricting the availability of flights through management of airport capacity.
- SAF (sustainable aviation fuel) is currently less than 1% of fuel & it won’t be possible to scale up production in any meaningful way for many years. SAF actually produces the same amount of carbon as kerosene when it comes out of a jet engine and takes land away from food production.
- Any improvements to fuel efficiency by newer planes are massively outweighed by increases in passenger numbers.
- The CCC also recommend ‘no net airport expansion’ until the Government has developed a ‘capacity management framework’ for aviation (https://www.aef.org.uk/2023/06/28/halt-airport-expansion-say-governments-climate-advisors/)
- An excellent report by NEF has shown that the economic arguments for airport expansion are seriously over valued (https://neweconomics.org/2023/07/losing-altitude). Please ask your MP to read at least the executive summary & the recommendations.
- Basically, airports fly people out of the UK to spend their money abroad,According to the ONS in 2023 overseas residents spent £31 billion on their visits to the UK. However, UK residents spent £72billion on visits abroad. THat’s a loss of over £40billion to the UK economy!
- Bristol Airport in its 2006 masterplan (for expansion to 10 million passengers in 2010) promised >3800 jobs by 2015. Employment by 2015 was actually ~1,000 fewer than promised. And it’s hard to measure any employment gains from the 2023 expansion as construction work is in progress.
If you’re not sure how to write to your MP you can use this online tool https://www.writetothem.com/