Where we are now.

The Judge in the High Court has rejected our statutory appeal and has said the expansion of Bristol Airport can go ahead. We have taken legal advice from our King's Counsel and she tells us that we have several good grounds for appeal.

We cannot allow this decision to go unchallenged. Apart from the devastation the airport's plans will cause to the climate, the extra congestion, additional night flights and damage to the Green Belt, it will also be used as a precedent for the numerous other regional airports with plans to expand. WE HAVE THEREFORE DECIDED TO APPEAL TO THE COURT OF APPEAL.

We have not taken this decision lightly. So far, we have spent four years helping the local community battle with the airport and by delaying their plans we have stopped millions of tonnes of carbon from being emitted. But the effort takes money as well as community spirit if we are going to be able to pay our legal team, and that is where you can help with our resistance.

Our experienced and talented legal team work at hugely discounted rates, but legal costs of this application to the Court of Appeal will still be more than £40k.  All the money raised will be spent on legal costs; we are all unpaid volunteers. 

Please help us to stop Bristol Airport (and all the other regional airports in the UK) expanding and help us fund this incredibly important Court of Appeal case.

This is very urgent; because of horribly tight legal deadlines we need to raise this money very quickly in order for our legal team to apply to the Court of Appeal. Please help!   Thank you.  

The background

Bristol Airport (owned by the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan, the sixth biggest pension fund in the world) applied to expand by two million passengers a year in Dec 2018. This would mean that there would be more than 20,000 extra flights producing an additional million tonnes of carbon a year, an extra 10,000 car movements a day on local congested roads, many more night flights and a new multi-storey car park on Greenbelt land. The airport also have published plans to ultimately double in size to 20 million passengers a year.

After a huge local campaign involving 11,000 people making written comments (77% against the plans), the airport's expansion plans were turned down by the local council’s planning committee in Feb 2020.

The airport appealed against this refusal and, after a three-month public inquiry, where the local MP’s, the West of England Combined Authority, the Metro Mayor, Bristol Council, Bath & North East Somerset Council and North Somerset Council all objected, the planning inspectors still gave the airport the go-ahead for their expansion plans.

BAAN bought a High Court challenge against the Planning Inspectorate decision which we said was unlawful, but our challenge has now been rejected by the Judge at first instance. BAAN now intend to appeal to the Court of Appeal for judgment in this nationally important case.