Campaigners trying to stop Bristol Airport's multi-million pound expansion plans have secured a small victory in their ongoing legal battle.
The campaigners have launched a High Court challenge to the Government's decision to allow the airport to expand with new terminal buildings, which would see the number of passengers increase from around nine million a year to 12 million.
At a court hearing to set the date for the two-day appeal case, there was a dispute about where that hearing should take place.
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The Airport's barristers wanted the case to be heard as part of the regular sittings of the High Court in London, but anti-airport expansion campaigners from Bristol Airport Action Network argued it should be heard in Bristol, where the people affected the most actually live.
And Mrs Justice Lang, the High Court judge, agreed. When she set the date for November 7 and 8, she said the two-day hearing should take place in Bristol, not London.
Mrs Justice Lang, said, “I accept the Claimant’s (BAAN’s) submission that accessibility for local people, who will be directly affected by the proposed development, weighs more heavily in the balance than the convenience of (the Airport’s) Counsel, who expect to travel as part of their work. Clearly Bristol would be a more convenient venue for local people than London.”
"Bristol Airport argued that the case should have been heard in London because it was convenient for their ‘legal team’ and Counsel," said a spokesperson for Bristol Airport Action Network. "However, BAAN said that the hearing should be in Bristol because the airport’s contested expansion plans had significant impact on the local area and the case has generated much local interest and people should have the opportunity to attend the hearing as is their democratic right."
The Airport, which is owned by the pension fund for the teachers of the province of Ontario in Canada, applied for planning permission to expand to North Somerset Council, but local councillors refused that permission. The airport appealed to a Government planning inspector, who held a lengthy public inquiry about the question, and then ruled earlier this year that the airport should be allowed to expand.
Campaigners from BAAN did not accept that, and won permission to challenge it in the High Court, arguing that the Government planning inspector had not considered the environment, and the Government's own climate change policies in the decision.
BAAN co-ordinator Tarisha Finnegan-Clarke said the decision to move the High Court from London to Bristol for the hearing was 'highly significant'.
“This decision is highly significant for the supporters of the campaign to stop the airport from increasing its passenger capacity from 10 million to 12 million per year. So many people and local authorities felt the result of the 10-week public inquiry that overturned the clear vote by North Somerset Council to reject the Airport’s expansion plans, was a huge travesty of local democracy.
"All of the local councils, WECA and the several local MPs were against it and yet the planning inspectors said it could go ahead. Such was the outcry against the decision of the planning inspectors that we felt compelled to challenge the Airport in the High Court with a statutory appeal. It seems only right that the challenge is heard in Bristol," she added.
The High Court hearing will be at the Bristol Civic Justice Centre in Redcliffe.
A Bristol Airport spokesperson said: "Bristol Airport is aware the hearing has been set to be held in Bristol for Bristol Airport Action Network Coordinating Committee's (BAANCC) application for statutory review of the 12 million passengers per annum permission.
"We await the outcome of the forthcoming hearing in which we continue to support the defence of the permission by the Planning Inspectorate.”
North Somerset Council said: "Bristol Airport Action Network (BAAN) have brought the challenge and we will await the outcome of the proceedings with interest."
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