Bristol Airport submitted plans to expand in 2018 which were turned down in Feb this year; they have now appealed against this refusal. Their plans would mean an extra 23,600 flights and two million passengers a year (as well as an extra 10,000 car movements a day). They would also mean an further million tonnes of carbon to be emitted a year at this time of climate and ecological emergency. Our position is that this airport expansion (and others that are planned) is not legally compliant with the Climate Change Act, The Paris Agreement and the Government's commitment to be carbon neutral by 2050 and MUST BE STOPPED.

We are the coordinating committee of an unpaid volunteer community group-Bristol Airport Action Network (BAAN) who are determined to challenge the airport's appeal. The original planning committee hearing was in February 2020 and we helped to mobilise residents. 84% of North Somerset residents who made comments rejected the expansion and over 8,000 formal objections were submitted on the planning website The result was that the local councillors overwhelmingly rejecting the plans at a public committee hearing. However, the airport refuse to accept this democratic decision and have now publicly announced that they intend to appeal.

We are determined to continue to resist their plans and to give evidence (and test the airport's evidence) at the planning enquiry. This is likely to be a 3-4 week appeal process and, to make a difference, we need to be represented by a specialist barrister and leading experts. We will be concentrating our evidence on the negative effect of the rapidly expanding impact of aviation on the climate and ecological crisis and, depending on the airport's evidence, the impact of COVID on the need for any expansion. 

We have been given a very favourable fee quote from a specialist planning barrister and are talking to a number of top experts who are likely to give their time pro-bono or at much reduced rates to represent us at the appeal. We are also being helped by Greenpeace and other environmental organisations.

Despite this, we still need to raise a large amount of money to pay professional fees. Every penny raised will be spent on fees to convince the Planning Inspector at the appeal that Bristol Airport's planned expansion is not legally compliant with the Climate Change Act, The Paris Agreement and the Government's commitment to be carbon neutral.

This is a very important test case for all regional airport expansions as we know that there are more than 20 plus other airports with current expansion plans and 'live' applications are currently in place for Leeds & Bradford and Southampton airports. The result of Bristol Airport's appeal will act as the benchmark and it is vitally important that these expansion plans are resisted. The UK needs to be leading the way as COP 26 approaches and setting international standards.

The science is clear but the airports have totally ignored this and are recklessly pursuing their growth agenda at this time of climate and ecological crisis.

We desperately need your support; please contribute as much as you can and share this page with your networks now!

Thank you so much for reading.