Category Archives: Environment

UCU writes to government to call in airport expansion application

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by

Following the decision of members on 10 March to oppose Leeds City Council’s airport expansion decision, branch president Ben Plumpton has written to the secretary of state for housing, communities and local government Robert Jenrick MP calling on the government to call in (review) the planning application for the expansion of Leeds Bradford Airport and hold a public enquiry. The planning application to expand Leeds Bradford Airport, from 4 million passengers per year to 7 million, was approved by Leeds City Council’s plans panel on 11 March. The council has now referred the decision to government to consider the impact on the greenbelt, but UCU members want the decision to be called-in and for a public inquiry. Dr Jennifer Fletcher, a senior research scientist in atmospheric and climate science at the university, who co-chairs the UCU branch climate and ecological emergency working group, said: “Expanding airports is incompatible with bringing down our soaring carbon emissions. It is vital that Robert Jenrick calls in this airport decision, as he did with the similarly controversial coal mine in Cumbria. As we recover from Covid-19, we need to increase healthy, green, well-protected jobs – not the sort of jobs associated with aviation.” The … Read more

Members vote to oppose Leeds City Council’s airport expansion decision

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by

UCU University of Leeds Branch voted to oppose Leeds City Council’s decision to approve the Leeds Bradford Airport expansions in a general meeting of members on Wednesday 10 March 2021. The Branch President has subsequently written to the Secretary of State, Robert Jenrick MP, to ask him to call in this planning application for a public enquiry. This branch notes: The recent dismal decision of Leeds City Council (LCC) City Plans Panel to provisionally approve the expansion of Leeds Bradford Airport (LBA) to build a new terminal, leading to a substantial increase in flights and therefore carbon emissions. Following this provisional approval, the University of Leeds’s UCU Climate and Ecological Emergency working group and University of Leeds climate and sustainability experts drafted a letter to the Secretary of State, Robert Jenrick MP, asking the Government to ‘call in’ (review) the planning application for the expansion of Leeds Bradford Airport. The letter was signed by over 100 people. That the UK Climate Change Committee’s  Sixth Carbon Budget published in December 2020 states that (i) there should be no expansion of UK airport capacity unless the sector is on track to sufficiently outperform its net emissions trajectory (Table p8.1, p29) and (ii) … Read more