Airport expansion Campaigners prepare to fight the latest plans

THE battle lines are being drawn, protests planned at City Hall and the same debates about economic boosts, the environment, climate change, transport, parking, noise and late-night activity ready to be argued.

- Tristan CORK

Bristol Airport wants to expand - again and again is being opposed by a long list of people and organisations, from residents' groups worried about traffic in their villages to environmentalists worried about climate change and the future of humankind.

For many, it feels like a restart of the huge battle over whether Bristol Airport should expand the first time around, which took place between 2017 and 2023. But this time, there could be key differences which may well mean the battle does not last as long, and also that those campaigning against the idea have an even tougher job this time in stopping it.

Bristol Airport has now published a 'masterplan' for this next phase of its expansion. It involves a longer runway, flights to North America and the Middle East, and significantly more flights and passengers through the terminal every day.

Until 2023, the airport had permission to have a maximum of nine million passengers every year, but after a lengthy battle, it won permission to increase that to 12million. As the first expansion develops, that's now up to more than 10million. Now, this latest expansion would take the number of passengers every year to 15 million.