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Southampton Airport expansion: City council confirms objections

David Goddard/Getty Images Southampton AirportDavid Goddard/Getty Images
The airport plans to extend its runway by 164m (538ft)

Objections to the planned extension of Southampton Airport have been upheld by the city council, despite the airport amending its proposals.

The airport wants to lengthen the runway by 164m (538ft) to increase the number of flights and allow the use of larger planes.

It insists its revised plans include "significant mitigation" to noise and environmental impacts.

Southampton City Council voted to continue to oppose the extension.

Managing director at Southampton Airport Steve Szalay previously said the airport's future would be in doubt if it was not allowed to extend the runway to accommodate planes such as the Airbus 320 and Boeing 737.

Local campaigners and Southampton City Council objected to the plans on the grounds of climate change and noise levels.

LDRS AXO action group demonstrationLDRS
Campaigners say Southampton is particularly vulnerable to aircraft noise pollution

Southampton Airport amended the proposals last year following a number of public consultations.

Changes included caps to passenger number growth and increasing the financial compensation for acoustic insulation to nearby households to £5,000.

The city council had to decide whether additional information provided by airport bosses was relevant enough for the plans to be scrutinised again, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

The airport's planning consultant Robin Henderson told the council's Rights of Way Panel: "We feel that the mitigation is significant and when you balance that against the significant contribution that the airport will continue to make to the economy we believe that balance does fall in favour of the proposed development."

The panel heard that without the extension, passenger numbers would be one million per year, beneath its break even point of 1.2 million passengers.

Despite the changes, the panel voted to uphold its objections.

Chair Lisa Mitchell said: "It has not been very long since we last discussed this and given that it doesn't appear there have been many changes, particularly around the things that we raised when this came to us."

A final decision on the plan will be made by Eastleigh Borough Council, in whose jurisdiction the airport is situated, although a date is yet to be confirmed.