Bristol Airport: High Court hearing granted for expansion ruling

A High Court hearing will be held this year for campaigners to challenge the decision to expand Bristol Airport.

Bristol Airport Action Network (BAAN) raised arguable grounds following the planning inspectorate's decision to permit expansion, a judge has ruled.

The expansion would allow the airport to increase its annual capacity from 10 million to 12 million passengers.

Airport bosses said they were aware of the case and would continue to defend the planning inspectorate's decision.

Government planning inspectors granted permission on appeal in February after the plans were rejected by North Somerset Council in 2020 on environmental grounds.

Bristol Airport's chief executive Dave Lees said the expansion would help to reduce the millions of road journeys made to London airports each year and said the airport would work with the community "to deliver sustainable growth".

BAAN has raised more than £20,000, through crowd funding, to pay for legal costs to support its appeal.

It said airport expansion would be damaging for local people and the environment, citing a rise in road traffic, increased noise and air pollution and an "inevitable rise in carbon emissions".

Stephen Clarke, from the group, said: "The idea that airports can just continue to expand without limit, in the middle of a climate and ecological crisis, is so obviously wrong.

"We are delighted that the judge agrees we have arguable grounds that the inspector's decision has errors in law and we look forward to the full hearing."

If judges at the planning statutory review - to be held on a date yet to be determined - rule in favour of BAAN's arguments, they could quash planning permission for the airport expansion.

The planning inspectorate would then need to reconsider its decision.

The planning inspectorate said at the time it recognised the "major disappointment" campaigners would have, but the benefits would outweigh the harm to green belt land.

A number of local officials and MPs, including Liam Fox and Wera Hobhouse, criticised the decision to overrule the council following a three-month enquiry.

However, North Somerset Council said that it would not pursue a legal challenge to the ruling.

Council leader Don Davies said they had "reluctantly" accepted legal advice that a challenge would carry a high level of risk and result in "significant further costs".

"A legal challenge through the High Court can only be successful if the inspectors can be shown to have erred in law.

"Unfortunately our disagreement with the inspectors' conclusions on the planning merits is not a relevant ground for challenge," Mr Davies said.

He said that were the original decision to be quashed, it was highly likely follow-up planning permission would subsequently be granted.

"We cannot justify risking more public money on a process that is unlikely to change anything," Mr Davies added.

A Bristol Airport spokesperson said: "We await the outcome of the forthcoming hearing in which we continue to defend the grant of the permission by the planning inspectorate."

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