Campaign Against Climate Change (Scotland)

Campaign Against Climate Change (Scotland)

NOTE: The planning consultation on the expansion of the runway in Aberdeen is now closed. Thank you for all those who sent in objection letters!

We are planning a series of events/meetings this autumn:

We will continue our campaign against Aberdeen airport expansion.

We will take part in the National Day of Action Against Climate Change on Saturday, 16th September, with street action/theatre, leafletting and banners.

We will hold a public meeting about the dangers and challenges of climate change on Monday, 9th October, 7.30 pm (venue to be confirmed), with a panel of speakers.

We will be holding a joint public meeting with Christian Aid on Wednesday, 18th October, 7.30 pm at Aberdeen Art Centre. Marjorie Clark, Area Co-Ordinator with Christian Aid will present their new report 'The Climate of Poverty'.

We will continue to do outreach, have stalls, raise awareness of climate change and what people can do about it - and we take part in the largest ever climate change demonstration in the UK on 4th November!

If anybody knows of a group (trade union, church group, residents' group, etc) which would like a speaker about climate change, please let us know! And we can definitely do with more people helping out - even if you can just put out a few leaflets on occasions, put up a poster, etc.

The NGO Coalition Stop Climate Chaos (of which our Campaign is a member) will be organising coaches to the London Climate Change Demonstration on 4th November, and we hope lots of people from Aberdeen will be able to go!

Campaign Against Climate Change (Scotland)

Campaign Against Climate Change (Scotland)

NO DEBATE ABOUT THE AIRPORT

We had hoped to organise a public debate to hear arguments for and against the planned expansion of Aberdeen airport. BAA had organised 'consultation meetings' at the beginning of this year, as they were obliged to do by law, but many local residents in Dyce told us that a large number of them were hard to access (either during working hours or not close to the flight path). Also, they were not public meetings, but road shows. I attended one of them and was immediately met by four BAA members of staff giving me leaflets and pointing me to the exhibition and video - not, in my view, a set-up which would help anybody to ask critical questions!

We therefore invited BAA to send a speaker for a public debate, so that more people would be able to make an informed decision about this important planning application.

BAA have now advised us that they are not prepared to take part in such a debate: "We will not be taking up this offer as our position on the runway extension and future growth of the airport is already very mucha matter of public record." They did send us further details of what their position is and suggested that people might like to read the Environmental Impact Assessment report in the planning department at St Nicholas House (or order a summary from BAA).

Airport expansion in Aberdeen will have serious implications for climate change, and will affect nearly 10,000 people who live under the flight path, and who will be exposed to more frequent noise in future. Wherever people stand - it's a major planning proposal which will affect a lot of people, and which deserves full public discussion. People hear contradictory statements from us and from BAA: We warn of rising greenhouse gas emissions, BAA say that airport expansion would reduce those emission and benefit the environment. A public debate could have brought out all the facts and figures and helped residents decide whom they believe.

We greatly regret BAA's refusal to take part in such a debate.

Campaign Against Climate Change (Scotland)

Campaign Against Climate Change (Scotland)

Object now to Aberdeen Airport Expansion!

BAA have now submitted their Environmental Impact Assessment. Not surprisingly, the assessment, which was commissioned and paid for by BAA, found in their favour. Residents of Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire can now formally object to the planning application for the runway extension. The period for objections will end in around five weeks (exact date not known yet).

We hope that lots of people will formally object to the planning application. If you have extra time, and if you haven't done so yet, please let your Councillor, MSP(s) and MP know what you think.

How to object:

Send a letter to the Planning Department, Aberdeen City Council, St Nicholas House, Upperkirkgate, Aberdeen, or email them at citydev@aberdeencity.gov.uk. You must quote the planning reference number A5/2080 and state clearly why you object to the application!

Draft letters:
Sorry, standard letters or postcards will not be accepted as individual objections. Below, however, is a copy of a press release I have sent off. You can use this as a basis for an objection letter if you wish.

ABERDEEN CAMPAIGN AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE CALL ON RESIDENTS TO OBJECT TO PLANS FOR AIRPORT EXPANSION

- for immediate release –

Aberdeen Campaign Against Climate Change urge local residents to formally object to BAA’s planning application to double the size of Aberdeen’s runway.

BAA have just submitted an Environmental Impact Assessment. Residents in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire will have around five weeks to object to airport expansion plans, which would substantially increase the number of flights to and from Aberdeen. Objection letters have to be sent to the Planning Department, Aberdeen City Council, St Nicholas House, Upperkirkgate, Aberdeen, and should quote the planning reference number A5/2080.

Almuth Ernsting from Aberdeen Campaign Against Climate Change states: “The proposed expansion of Aberdeen airport is part of BAA’s national programme of trebling the number of air passengers. This will vastly increase CO2 emissions which destabilise our climate. In recent weeks, record-breaking heat waves and droughts have affected much of the northern hemisphere. The death toll will not be known for some time – but new research has just shown that some 52,000 Europeans died in the last major heat wave, exactly three years ago. Climate change is no longer a threat for the future – it is causing mass deaths and crops failures right now. Nobody wants to close down Aberdeen airport, but we cannot go on increasing the number of flights and the amount of heat-trapping emissions as BAA want to do”.

The BAA Masterplan itself states that airport expansion will lead to a greater number of flights per hour, rather than replacing existing planes with larger and more efficient ones. This will not only lead to more climate-change emissions, but will also expose nearly 10,000 local people to more frequent noise disturbance. Flight noise has been linked to physical and mental health problems, including lower concentration and reading levels in children living under a flight path.

Expanding regional airports in Scotland has been shown to cause a net-drain on the local economy: For every pound spent by a tourist flying to the north-east some 2.5 pounds will be taken out of Grampian’s economy, and this trend is forecast to get even worse with airport expansion.

Contacts: Almuth Ernsting, Tel: 01224-324797 or 01224-553195
Alister Coutts, Tel: 07961-454297

Notes to the Editor:
For information about Aberdeen Campaign Against Climate Change, please see our website http://climatechangecampaign.blogspot.com

For information about aviation and climate change see: http://www.transportenvironment.org/Article200.html

For information about the impact of aviation on regional economies in Scotland see: http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/briefings/regional_tourism_deficit.pdf (economy)