Health Professionals protest at Leeds Bradford Airport
They're calling on Leeds City Council to reverse their decision to expand the airport
Health professionals are protesting at Leeds Bradford Airport today (4th September), calling on Leeds City Council to reverse their decision to expand the airport.
Protesters, will be joined by climate activists to gather on the grass verge at the roundabout, where the A658 meets Whitehouse Lane and leads down to Leeds Bradford Airport.
Their message is: airport expansion is bad for our health and a cost the community simply cannot afford
Dr Richard Solomons, a GP in Keighley and one of the coordinators of the protest, says:
“The recent ‘code red’ report from the world’s leading climate scientists told us that we can protect our future health, and we can prevent the kind of climate chaos the world has seen this year, by cutting greenhouse gases in half by 2030. Allowing Leeds Bradford Airport to expand would mean doubling its greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and would make the Council’s own climate targets impossible to achieve. We can protect job security too by rapidly moving the local economy from high to zero carbon jobs.”
Dr Mia Thomas works as a paediatrician in Leeds health services. She says:
“I work to help look after the health of children in West Yorkshire. Local air pollution in Leeds is already above the World Health Organisation’s recommended levels and increasing air and noise pollution is certain to be detrimental to children’s health. It is all of our responsibility to safeguard our children's future and this means we must fight the expansion of the airport and concentrate on building a fair transition to a zero carbon economy."
She added:
“The increase in NO2 emissions and tiny particles (known as PM2.5) caused by an increase in traffic will be extremely harmful to the health and wellbeing of nearby communities. As it stands, local levels of PM2.5 are already in contravention of World Health Organisation regulations, yet continue to rise. Poor quality air is estimated to cause, on average, 300 deaths in Leeds every year.”
Dr Tess Mattam who works as a GP in Leeds says:
“We’ve all seen the terrifying wildfires and floods across the world recently. These are the early effects of the climate crisis, which will get worse - much, much worse - if we do nothing. The good news is that we can make a better future if we make the right decisions now. By halving our emissions in the next 10 years, we can stop the climate crisis from getting worse. That’s why it’s so important not to let the airport expand and double its greenhouse gas emissions in the next 10 years. As the Secretary General of the United Nations said ‘there is no time for delay and no room for excuses’.”
A Leeds City Council spokesperson said:
“The council recognises that the Leeds Bradford Airport planning application has been the subject of much public debate and, from the moment it was first submitted, full and proper attention has been paid to the evidence and arguments put forward by supporters and opponents alike, including matters in relation to Public Health. It should also be noted that the application was assessed on its own individual merits as part of the council’s normal planning process.
“There were a large number of matters for plans panel members to consider during this process, including the council’s declaration of a climate emergency and the issue of increasing carbon emissions from flights. Current Government policy points to these emissions being something that should be primarily tackled at a national level – and addressed through international agreements and protocols – rather than by suppressing growth at individual airports in a way that could simply export passengers to other nearby airports at a higher financial cost to them and increase surface transport emissions.
“The city plans panel also took into account matters such as the impact of aircraft noise on residents and the airport’s proposals for noise mitigation and landscaping as well as planned accessibility improvements designed to encourage a greater proportion of passengers and staff to use public transport for their journeys to and from the site.
“In addition, the airport’s plans showed that the proposed new terminal would replace the outdated and inefficient existing terminal and be built to a higher standard of environmental performance that would also provide an improved ‘gateway’ to Leeds, with an associated creation of new jobs.
“Following the consideration of the application by the City Council’s City Plans Panel, consistent with the legal requirements, the application has been referred to the Secretary of State. The Secretary of State has also been requested to ‘Call In’ the application from the Secretary of State, by opponents of the proposal. At the current time, the City Council is still awaiting decision on the Call In request.”
A spokesperson for Leeds Bradford Airport (LBA), said:
“We welcome all feedback and understand the concerns presented. LBA’s application is not about expansion, but about achieving what we already have consent to do in a more sustainable way, building cleaner and greener infrastructure for the future. Development will make LBA an outstanding net zero airport ahead of government targets on sustainable aviation with a much-improved passenger experience, connecting Yorkshire with other parts of the country and the world for business and tourism whilst creating thousands of jobs in the process. Leeds City Council recognised these benefits when approving the proposals earlier this year and we hope the Government will see through on its promise to level up the north of England and sign off approval in due course.”