All you need to know about this week’s Leeds Bradford Airport decision

All eyes will be on Leeds City Council’s City Plans Panel as it hears the application for LBA’s £150m expansion plans at an online meeting on Thursday.

Here is a quick recap of how the planning application unfolded.

So what is the application for?

Although first announced back in 2019, plans for Leeds Bradford Airport’s £150m overhaul were officially submitted to Leeds Council in May 2020.

The plans claim a ‘state of the art’ terminal being would include three main floors with improved vehicle access. It would also be closer to a proposed parkway rail station, announced by Leeds City Council last year.

The application seeks to demolish the existing passenger pier to accommodate a new terminal building and forecourt area. This would also include the construction of supporting infrastructure, goods yard and mechanical electrical plant.

New car parking, a ‘meet and greet’ building and separate parking inspection building is also included in the plans, as well as a new bus terminal and taxi drop off facilities to the front of the new passenger terminal.

Planners also want to modify flight time controls, and to extend the daytime flight period at Leeds Bradford Airport,

The airport hopes for work to start on construction of the site by the end of this year, and for the new terminal to be up and running by 2023.

Why does the airport want to do it?

The application claims the current terminal – parts of which date back to the 1960s – is ‘dated’ and ‘inefficient’, warning the airport could lose passengers to nearby Manchester Airport unless the improvements are approved.

It said: “There are clear environmental benefits in improving the existing infrastructure at the Airport.

“The current terminal is aged and has been the subject of a series of extensions since it was first built in the 1960s, which has resulted in a dated, and inefficient operation, which compromises its environmental integrity.”

The planning application went on to state that the developments would add £400M a year to Leeds and the surrounding area’s economy, and would ‘support’ nearly 9,000 jobs.

It hopes the planned expansion could see seven million passengers per year by 2030.

Why are some people unhappy with it?

Several reasons, to put it lightly.

Climate scientists have warned the environmental damage caused by extra flights would dwarf any benefits gained from a more energy efficient terminal building.

Some local residents have also expressed concerns around how the extra flights would affect their lives, with noise a concern.

Leeds YouthStrike4Climate has said the plans, which could see the number of flights at the facility increase, could disproportionately affect both disadvantaged areas and schoolchildren.

Huddersfield Friends of the Earth has also criticised Leeds Bradford Airport’s proposed £1.5m contribution towards the planned £42m parkway railway station, suggesting the remaining amount may have to be paid for with public money.

Some have even suggested that the economic arguments for allowing the expansion are not sound, while the Covid-19 pandemic could cause a long-term reduction in demand for flights.

Just this week, a letter signed by campaign group GALBA sent a letter to committee members, signed by MPs, councillors and climate scientists, as a final plea to stop the expansion of the airport.

Add these to numerous high-profile protests over the past couple of years – including the now-infamous “die-in” staged by protesters at a planning meeting in January 2020.