Birmingham International Airport

Birmingham Airport has published its Master Plan proposing to almost treble the number of passengers, from 9.2 million per year in 2006 to 27.2 million by 2030.

The Master Plan includes proposals to extend the existing runway into the Green Belt south of the A45 and a planning application has been submitted to Solihull Council. You can download a copy of CPRE’s response.

The Master Plan has delayed the proposal to build a new second runway until after 2030, which we welcome, but has not abandoned it completely. This has meant the blight on nearby residential and other property will continue.

CPRE accepts that Birmingham Airport should remain the main airport for the region but we do not believe that a second runway will ever be needed, especially as it currently has a great deal of spare runway capacity.

Nor are we convinced that the case for an extension of the existing runway outweighs the environmental drawbacks of the proposal. We are currently assessing the proposal’s impact on the Green Belt, the countryside and the environment generally.

Currently far too few people come to the airport by public transport, increasing congestion on our roads. We welcome a commitment by the airport to increase the share of people reaching the airport by public transport to 30% by 2030.

However, given the scale of the proposed expansion, this would still leave a very much larger number of people travelling by car to and from the airport than do so now. This is exacerbated by the volume of parking likely to be proposed, and its location.

The airport’s proposals for improving access to the M42 are unclear and we remain concerned about increased road and rail congestion resulting from airport expansion.

Click Here to see our Press Release dated 26th September 2007

14 February 2008