Stop Bristol Airport Campaign Update

bristol | transport | news report Thursday September 17, 2009 08:23 by fw

6000 objections to the expansion...

Latest newsletter from Stop Bristol Airport Campaign

Here's latest from the StopBIA campaign:

Bristol Airport expansion update

1) Climate Rush picnic:

The delightfully eccentric Climate Rush (www.climaterush.co.uk) will be coming to Bristol on Sunday 20th September and staying here for Monday. They are travelling from Heathrow to Totnes by horse and cart, dressed as suffragettes (I did mention eccentricity!) spreading the word about climate change and celebrating the best practice that they find. You may have seen them in the August edition of Vogue - not the usual place for environmentalists to be seen!

Whilst in Bristol they will be holding a picnic on College Green at 1pm (until 3-ish) on Monday 21st and as they say:

"Bring food, drink, family and music to our anti-airport expansion
picnic protest – to be held on COLLEGE GREEN. We’ll be holding
forums on the grass with Friends of the Earth to discuss BIA issues
and celebrate the city council’s formal objection to it!"

Please come along if you can make it - especially as now B&NES council has also stated objection to BIA expansion on climate change grounds.

2) Bristol and B&NES object:

Bristol City Council has formally objected to the airport expansion on a number of grounds including climate change, surface access and noise. B&NES has passed a motion objecting to the expansion on climate change grounds and is expected to formally pass on these views to North Somerset council.

3) Macquarie Airports sells stake in BIA:

MAp has sold its 35% stake to the minority shareholder Ontario Teacher's Pension Plan. Another branch of Macquarie retains a 50% stake. That the airport specialist should sell up BIA and increase its stake in Copenhagen would indicate a lack of faith that the airport can perform. It seems odd that a pension fund with members who may be reaching retirement in 2050 would increase its investments in businesses that depend so heavily on climate change emissions and cheap oil - not a scenario that fits with a world for pensioners in 2050!

4) Objections etc

North Somerset received around 6000 objections to the expansion (and seems to be allowing more to come in). The airport raised a petition of support of 1900 signatures, but this is considerably less than the number of employees at the airport and far less than the million or more passengers who used it during the consultation period. We are expecting the first council meetings to be in November - keep an eye on http://www.stopbia.com for details

If you want to help further, you can make direct representations to your councillor and MP. You can also donate money using Paypal on our website at http://www.stopbia.com

Thanks for your time

SBAE