BAAN press release 3rd Nov 2025
In a shocking oversight, Bristol Airport is scrambling to consult on new plans to accommodate the basic functionality needed for its multimillion pound proposed runway extension to allow transatlantic flights.
Sources close to Bristol Airport have revealed that their recent ‘Master Plan’ failed to include plans for approach landing lights, an obvious and essential safety feature.
Bristol Airport Action Network (BAAN), a grassroots movement of local residents and environmental campaigners, understands that Bristol Airport intends to urgently seek ‘further consultations’ on ‘amendments’ to their Master Plan. The critical questions under consideration include the embarrassingly basic issue of where to put the approach landing lights.
BAAN also understands that the Airport will announce a consultation on the 6th of November to propose commandeering part of Felton Common to site the approach lights as this would be the ‘cheapest option’.
Richard Baxter, a local environmental campaigner speaking for BAAN said:
“This is absolutely outrageous and unacceptable. We’ve seen this time and time again – the Airport slowly creeps beyond its borders to commandeer even more land for its corporate cash grab.
“Felton residents shouldn’t have their community space reduced and their homes and wildlife facing such intense light pollution just to spare the Airport its blushes for forgetting about the safe landing of its long haul flights.
“This latest fiasco further undermines the Airports so-called ‘Master Plan’ and leaves us all asking – what else have they forgotten to tell us?”
BAAN research suggests that the approach would be a row of bright white elevated lights placed 30 metres apart and stretching more than 250 metres long – roughly equivalent to the length of Park Street in Bristol. The space will then need additional security measures, including a tall green fence to prevent people accessing the space.
It is anticipated that the new lights would allow the larger long-haul planes needed for transatlantic flights to approach the extended runway on a trajectory around 9 metres lower than before. This could create a considerable additional vortex and exacerbate an existing effect which has already caused residents to lose roof tiles from their houses. The full implications of this change on local residents and public health is unclear.
Felton Common, about 100 acres of designated open access land, is a cherished recreational space for residents as well as a local nature reserve, a conservation space, and an important archaeological site that includes Scheduled Ancient Monuments.
More than 400 acres of green belt land has already been re-designated for airport use in the last 20 years, even before this shocking news about Felton Common land.
The Bristol Tree Forum (BTF) has stated that the new 15mppa planning application is expected to try to grab even more green belt land. In a recent press release BTF said:
“[The 15mmpa expansions plans] would result in the disappearance of 33 hectares [80 acres] of green belt, as tarmac is laid for yet more car parks, an excellent source of revenue for airports. These new parking areas are full of habitats vital for nature – broad-leaved woodland and scattered trees, species-rich native hedgerows and grasslands, tall vegetation, scrub habitats, standing open water and ponds.”
Bristol Airport admits that its proposals will require the ‘development of land’ that are currently open fields to the north, west, and south of the airfield – much of which will be for car parking. It claims that the effects of its proposals on the wider landscape will be considered.