15th October 2007

A demonstration against the airport expansion has been organised for the weekend of 20th/21st October. Inspired by the Camp for Climate Action 2007 at Heathrow, activists and local residents have organised the camp to protest against the expansion of Gloucestershire Airport at Staverton. Brief report here on 24th Oct blog entry and more coming soon on this website (use search facility).

Photo: Greens at Staverton protest last year 

Philip Booth, a Stroud District councillor and spokesperson for Gloucestershire Green parties, said: "Many of us are waging a campaign against the planned airport expansion at Staverton Airport. If the extension goes ahead, it will allow new services to be introduced to cities such as Glasgow, Edinburgh and other European cities. The airport’s management justified its expansion by claiming that it will cause no damage to the environment and they even tried to claim that there was no such thing as global warming."

Philip Booth, who supported the protest against Staverton last year, said: "Why should this airport be allowed to increase its CO2 emissions, when every other business in Gloucestershire is being told to cut theirs significantly?  The science is clear. We cannot countenance any further expansion of aviation"

CASE latest summary on other actions slightly adapted for this website:

1.Location of "Camp Hope" - it will take place at a location directly opposite the entrance to the airport on Bramfurlong Lane - for details of public transport etc see:

http://campforhopeatstaverton.blogspot.com/

http://www.myspace.com/campofhope


2. Contact councillors - As one of the two joint owners of the airport, Gloucester City Council is considering whether to support the airports expansion plans. A working group has been set up by the "Overview and Scrutiny" committee to examine the airport's business plan and make a recommendation to the Council who will ultimately make the decision.

The working group consists of the following councillors :

Harjit Gill             Harjit.gill@gloucester.gov.uk
Philip McLellan         philipm@gloucester.gov.uk
Kathy Williams          Kathy.Williams@gloucester.gov.uk

The working group can be contacted by email or at the council offices :

Gloucester City Council
North Warehouse,
The Docks
Gloucester
GL1 2EP

Please consider writing to them and letting them know what you think about the proposed expansion.

CASE believe that the expansion cannot be justified on safety grounds, and will lead to more noise, pollution and longer opening hours. To generate the revenue necessary to finance the expansion the airport would have to attract additional business and commercial flights. The Instrument Landing System that the airport plan to install would also lead to an intensification of training flights and increase demand for longer opening hours. The larger aircraft that the airport hope to attract create significantly more CO2 and other greenhouse gases than the light aircraft which currently predominate at the airport.

(It should be noted that other councillors in Gloucester City, Cheltenham Borough and Tewkesbury District could also be contacted)

3. Latest on Planning applications - The planning applications submitted by the airport have still not been considered by the Tewkesbury Borough Council planning committee. The committee will not consider the four planning applications made by the airport until their November meeting, at the earliest. As soon as the committee date and the planning officers recommendations are published we will send an update with the details of the committee members so that you can contact them directly and make your views known.

Clearly the planners see the expansion as an issue, as they have spent nearly a year analysing the applications to judge if, and to what extent, there will be 'intensification'.


4. Noise complaints - Remember that noise complaints can now be submitted online using the airports new website. The home page is at :

www.gloucestershireairport.co.uk

and the noise complaint form is at :

www.gloucestershireairport.co.uk/LogComplaint.php

If complaints are not made the airport will claim that their operations do not cause a noise nuisance. It only takes a moment to log a complaint, whether it is an out of hours incident, something particularly low or loud, or repeated circuits.


Notes:

(i) CASE (Concerned residents Against Staverton Expansion) are at www.case-online.org.uk