Coventry Airport introduced scheduled passenger flights in 2004 even though it did not have planning permission for its new passenger terminal.

However, after a Public Inquiry, the Government granted retrospective planning permission for an interim passenger facility.

Coventry Airport has since sought to expand its operations further but the Government has rejected proposals for a much larger permanent terminal. The airport challenged that decision in the High Court but was unsuccessful.

Because Coventry Airport is badly located in terms of public transport access the overwhelming majority of passengers travel by car, increasing congestion and carbon dioxide emissions on the road network.

The increased noise and impacts on air quality would be considerable. We do not believe the airport is proposing good enough measures to contain this.

Expansion would increase the impact on the countryside around the airport and we continue to oppose it.

We specifically argued that the airport’s passenger throughput should be capped at no more than 1 million per year. We also called for stronger control over air freight activity at the airport.

However, events have now overtaken the planning process and Coventry is no longer in use for passenger flights and its future is uncertain. You can read more about the success of our campaign below.

Coventry Airport finally accepts the answer ‘no’

After 6 years, 3 environmental impact assessments, 2 public inquiries and subsequent legal appeals, Coventry Airport has finally accepted that it cannot develop a new passenger terminal.

Scheduled passenger flights started at Coventry in 2004 using a temporary building without planning permission. The local planning authority took enforcement action and this led to a public inquiry in 2005, at which CPRE teamed up with the community group and a local councillor opposing airport expansion. Before the outcome of this inquiry was known, a second inquiry started, this time into a permanent passenger terminal many times the size of the temporary building.

The local planning authority didn’t object to the much larger terminal in the second inquiry. Midway through, the Government announced its decision on the first inquiry: although the temporary passenger terminal was judged unlawful, planning permission was granted retrospectively. Despite this setback, we pressed our case opposing expansion: among others, we showed increased noise impact and a problem of getting to the airport situated at the end of a 2km cul-de-sac. We argued that supposed mitigation measures were not sufficient.

The inquiry dragged on for seven months but eventually the Government decided the permanent passenger terminal was not acceptable: the proposal did not comply with sustainable development policies; there would be significant noise nuisance; there were not sufficient benefits to outweigh environmental damage. But Coventry Airport would not accept this rejection. They appealed to the High Court. They lost, so they embarked on further appeals to the Appeal Court. But finally in 2009 they accepted the inevitable: they could not expand passenger flights.

We have now returned to the position where there are no scheduled passenger flights from Coventry Airport.

26.06.09