Your say / Bristol airport
‘The powerful think they can ride roughshod over our rights for profit’
We are all commoners!
There once was a mega-corporation known as Bristol Airport which devoured everything in its midst: clean skies, carbon budgets, quiet nights and a stable climate.
The goal was profits and more profits as it pursued its endless expansion plans without stopping for breath.
is needed now More than ever
The owners of the airport are Macquarie Asset Management, previous owners of Thames Water, and that fact alone should ring alarm bells for us all in the South West.
It has become famous for being an asset stripping consortium, who leave a deluge of mess behind which the public purse often has to pick up.
Bristol Airport currently has planning permission to expand from 10.5m passengers per year to 12m but, despite this headroom, they have recently applied for a whopping increase to 15m passengers: an extra 30,000 flights in total from today’s figures.
Goodnight to sweet dreams for many of us, and farewell to a stable climate for all of us.
The airport are planning to rely on people joining the ‘frequent flyers brigade’, people who fly at the drop of a hat. Weekends here, weekends there; even day trips here, day trips there. The mega corporation entices us with adverts. Why not fly, the flights are cheap!
But what about the hidden costs to flying that are not included in the price of a ticket from Bristol Airport?
The latest expansion plans will mean jamming of the A38 with 7,000 more car journeys a day, an enormous amount of noise disturbance and an extra 1000 health-damaging night flights.
And now, a new cost has appeared: the potential loss of a local dearly loved common.
The airport wants to forcibly buy Felton Common off its guardians (Winford Parish Council) against its will.
In an outrageous act, Bristol Airport have decided that they need to construct a large array of landing lights up to 8 meters high on the common which would split the land in two and light it up like a football stadium.
Felton Common is a much-loved medieval common next to the airport with hundreds of plant species, much wildlife and many happy memories through generations.
It is registered common land; that means it’s the people’s land and we have rights over it. Rights to walk our dog, lay on the grass, have a picnic or listen to the wonderful sound of the starlings as they nest.
Our ancestors fought for this land and our rights when the gentry were fencing off the vast majority of the countryside during the middle ages. Most of us take it for granted that it will remain in public ownership and is protected for ever.
However, we live in strange times, where the powerful (Macquarie are a £300 billion company) think they can ride roughshod over our rights for profit.
The community group Save Felton Common, made up of hundreds of local residents, do not agree. They are protesting loudly and effectively, lobbying MPs and councillors and generally making their distress known about this land grab.
The group has recorded a song and video which has had over 400,000 reels and post views.
In the last few days, the airport has put up notices confirming that they are going to compulsorily purchase the land and are asking people to register their interests.
The notices say: “To: the owners, lessees, tenants and any occupiers of land shown edged red on the accompanying plan and any person with an interest in [Felton Common]”.
So this is what the Save Felton Common group like you to do:
They say that we all have an interest in Felton Common as it is owned by us all. Therefore, they suggest that we follow the ‘I am Spartacus route’ and all respond to the notice.
We should follow the airport’s instructions to register our interest by emailing [email protected] (quoting reference 118). They would appreciate it if you could copy [email protected] into your email.
This is precious land; once lost into private ownership it is not coming back but if we can work together, we can stop this.
Stephen Clarke and Tarisha Finnegan-Clarke are members of the Bristol Airport Action Network group that has been campaigning under the banner ‘Bristol Airport is big enough’ since 2019.
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