BelfastCity

Residents’ groups in East and South Belfast and North Down have taken great heart from the decision of the United Nations to intervene in the Belfast City Airport expansion controversy.

Leading the charge is the Cultra Residents’ Association who are appealing to an international environmental justice treaty known as the Aarhus Convention.

The Aarhus Convention goes to the heart of the relationship between people and governments. The Convention is not only an environmental agreement, it is also a Convention about government accountability, transparency and responsiveness.

The Aarhus Convention grants the public rights and imposes on Parties and public authorities obligations regarding access to information and public participation and access to justice.

Its central principle is that access to environmental justice should be fair, equitable and not “prohibitively expensive”.

The Belfast Telegraph broke the story in early May and, in its page one lead, explained that Residents’ associations from Kinnegar, Ormeau and Cultra were granted leave to take a Judicial Review case against the Department of the Environment in 2007. This was to ask the court to review the DoE’s decision-making process on establishing a new Planning Agreement with the City Airport, one which would alter some of its main operating restrictions, i.e. those designed to limit its environmental impact.

Campaigners opposed to the runway extension at City Airport have accused bosses of “spinning out of control”.

They cited a report on UTV as an example of how executives at the controversial airport are attempting to manipulate the message.

In a news piece which featured senior politician, Fred Cobain, calling for a Public Inquiry into the runway planning application, UTV Reporter Niall Donnelly quoted the airport as saying that the extension would mean no change in the number of flights, no changes to the curfew, and no larger planes than are currently using the Airport.

The 80,000 seats which shouldn’t have been sold

George Best Belfast City Airport has confirmed to local residents that it’s broken the terms of its new Planning Agreement with the Department of the Environment which was intended to minimise noise and environmental damage.

At a meeting on 4 March of the airport’s consultative forum, its Chief Executive, Brian Ambrose, admitted the airport had breached a vital ‘seats for sale’ clause in the Agreement and that 80,000 more seats were sold than permitted under the Planning Agreement during 2008.

The figures were in a document of statistical information which formed part of the report to the Forum, and Mr Ambrose confirmed at the meeting that although the table was headed 'Available Seats', that these were the Seats for Sale figures, as per the restriction in the Planning Agreement.

The number of Seats for Sale  which the Airport allowed to be made available in the year 2008 was 2,080,191 – 80,191 over the 2,000,000 per year Planning Agreement limit.

This is equal to well over 600 flights – not a trivial breach for those who live with these flights taking off over their homes day in day out. This is a major Planning Agreement which has been broken by Belfast City Airport – and by a significant amount.

Local residents say they’re furious that the airport is disregarding the new Agreement which raised the ‘seats for sale’ limit from 1.5 million to 2 million and which was signed just five months ago.

“These revelations just confirm that the new Planning Agreement isn’t worth the paper it’s written on,” commented Fiona McKinley, spokesperson for Belfast City Airport Watch, the umbrella group of residents’ groups which is fighting the airport’s plans for a runway extension.

“If the City Airport is already breaking limits on passenger numbers set in the Agreement, just think what it would do if it was given the go-ahead for the runway extension.

“We’re bitterly disappointed that the Department of the Environment is failing to take any action against the airport for breaching the Agreement.

“Sammy Wilson, the Environment Minister, must tell his officials to enforce the Agreement properly.”

The ‘seats for sale’ restriction was included in the Planning Agreement as an environmental impact control, to help restrict the number of large, noisier jet aircraft using the airport.

Let’s have a Public Inquiry!

That is the clear message delivered by one of Northern Ireland’s three MEP’s, Jim Allister of Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV). In a statement, the MEP said he believed that local residents had the right to have their concerns about a 590-metre extension to the runway at Belfast City Airport adequately heard.

Mr Allister is the latest in a ever-lengthening list of senior politicians who’ve given their backing for a Public Inquiry.

Last week, 81 MLAs in the Northern Ireland Assembly threw their collective weight behind the call for an Inquiry – adding further pressure on the Planning Service as it ponders what to do next.

ASSEMBLY BACKS PUBLIC INQUIRY

Residents groups say that the decision of the Assembly to back a Public Inquiry into the plan to extend the runway at George Best Belfast City Airport is “a defining moment” in their all-out campaign.

Eighty-one MLA’s – all of those present – backed the call made by Green Party MLA, Brian Wilson, backed by the David Ford and Stephen Farry of the Alliance Party and Dawn Purvis of the Progressive Unionist Party, without a formal vote being called.

Support for a Public Inquiry came from all sides of the House.

The controversial plan to extend the runway at the city airport is to be debated on the floor of the Assembly on Tuesday (24th February).

A Motion calling for a Public Inquiry into the proposal has been tabled by Brian Wilson of the Green Party, supported by MLAs from The Alliance Party.

South Belfast MP Dr Alasdair McDonnell has called on the Environment Minister, Sammy Wilson, to come to “the same logical conclusion” on the airport runway application as he did on the John Lewis development and hold a Public Inquiry.

Management at Belfast City Airport has been told to follow the lead of John Lewis by coming out in support of a Public Inquiry.

Residents groups and a plethora of senior politicians, airlines and businesses have been arguing for a full Inquiry, maintaining that it is the only meaningful way of dealing with the controversial runway extension application. So far, the airport has been resisting calls for a Public Inquiry.

Another senior Belfast politician, Alasdair McDonnell MP, (SDLP) has added his voice to demands for a public inquiry into the proposed runway extension at City Airport. In a short but pointed public statement, the South Belfast MP and MLA called on the Planning Minister, Sammy Wilson, to “listen to local residents and his Belfast City Council colleagues” who are demanding a Public Inquiry.