A call has been made for Liverpool Council to strip funding from Liverpool John Lennon Airport.
In a motion to go before the city’s full council next week, members will be asked to consider backing a plan to ask Mayor Joanne Anderson and her cabinet to cease the authority’s financial support for Liverpool John Lennon Airport (LJLA).
The motion, put forward by Green Cllr Anna Key to be debated on Wednesday, makes reference to LJLA’s Airport Master Plan to expand the business by 2050.
Read more: What comes next for Liverpool John Lennon Airport as expansion concerns mount
Cllr Key’s motion states that the plan includes a number of “consequences” including a larger footprint for airport buildings and related infrastructure including an enlarged car park and a potential runway extension; increased number of flights; reduced green space, including the removal of the Green Belt status of land adjacent to the airport, and a major new road to carry freight and passenger traffic.
The St Michaels ward member’s motion calls on councillors to note that the authority has developed policies addressing the “negative impact on climate change on the city” since declaring a climate emergency in 2019 and should oppose developments that “make climate change worse and reduce biodiversity and wildlife habitats.”
The proposals states that the Liverpool Net Zero Carbon 2030 plan includes the council's ambition to become carbon neutral by 2030.
It adds: “An enlarged airport with associated road building and removal of Green Belt status from a substantial amount of adjacent land is incompatible with these aims and should be opposed.”
The motion calls on councillors to back a plan to request Mayor Anderson and the cabinet to “remove all financial support from JLA” and write to representatives at the airport setting out “the council's opposition to its Masterplan which sets out the proposals for potential future expansion.”
The Green member also requests that the council’s executive instructs the local planning authority to undertake an urgent evidence based review of all policies relating to green space and the environment in order to ensure sufficient policy protections for Greenbelt land are in place, as well as an evidence-based review of all council policies and plans relating to greenspace and the environment in order to ensure sufficient policy protections for Green Belt land are set.
An LJLA spokesman previously told the ECHO that the timescale for plans for expanding where “likely to slip” as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, remained “valid.”
The spokesperson added that JLA says it 'naturally recognises its wider environmental responsibilities' and says it has its own plans to reach net carbon zero by 2040.
This includes the potential for on site renewable energy generation through the installation of a solar farm to decarbonise the airport’s energy usage.
The spokesperson added: "The Airport is also a signatory to ‘Sustainable Aviation’, working with airlines, aircraft and engine manufacturers and others in the aviation industry with a roadmap for the wider aviation industry to be carbon neutral by 2050."
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