Leeds Bradford Airport accused of night flight breaches
Airport campaigners have claimed that a West Yorkshire airport has broken it's night flights rules for the third year running.
The Group for Action on Leeds Bradford Airport claim that their own monitoring shows there were 820 more flights at LBA that what is permitted over their summertime period.
They have today, 5 November, made a formal complaint to Leeds City Council and written to all Leeds councillors about the alleged breach.
The airport insisted it had abided by their "interpretation of the planning conditions" it was bound by.
The airport had a cap for 2024 on night time flights restricting it to 2,920 flights between 11pm and 7am from 31 March to 27 October.
LBA was previously found to have breached its summer night flights limit in 2022 and 2023, although no further action was taken.
GALBA chair Nick Hodgkinson said: “These rules exist to protect public health but LBA’s bosses clearly don't care about rules, or the airport’s neighbours.
"It would make a mockery of Leeds City Council to let LBA get away with flouting the rules year after year after year.
"GALBA has given the council independent, industry standard data to prove LBA’s unlawful activity, so there’s no excuse for doing nothing again this year."
Leeds City Council are yet to calculate the airports night flights numbers for the summer season. A spokesperson from LCC said: “The monitoring process therefore remains live and ongoing and, as such, it would be inappropriate to comment further at this stage.
“The council recognises that planning issues relating to the airport are the subject of public interest, and we work hard to deal with them in an efficient, timely and legally compliant way.”
In response to GALBA's claims, a Leeds Bradford Airport spokesperson said: “As previously stated, on 13 September 2024, we submitted 3 appeals with the Planning Inspectorate against the non-determination and refusal by Leeds City Council (LCC) of LBA’s CLEUD (Certificate of Lawfulness of Existing Use or Development) applications made in December 2023.
“After a much extended decision-making period and significant level of public interest, we requested a public inquiry which we hope will allow an informed decision to be made by an independent third party on the correct legal interpretation of the existing planning conditions governing the operation of night flights at LBA.
“It has now been confirmed an inquiry will take place on 11 March 2025.
“We have been consistent that we have and will continue to operate in accordance with our interpretation of the planning conditions until the conclusion of that process.
“As we have previously stated, the purpose of the existing planning consent when granted was to allow night flights but minimise the potential for increased noise of those flights on local communities. Our interpretation of the conditions stays true to this purpose and would encourage airlines to deploy the latest generation of aircraft which are quieter and more efficient.”
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