BRISTOL Airport confirmed yesterday that work is underway to begin the expansion of the airport.

Over £60 million has been invested into a new multi-storey car park, which will provide 2,000 extra parking spaces, and also become home to the new public transport interchange hub.

It will mean Bristol Airport will become one of the largest public transport hubs in the South West, and facilitates for the airport's eventual goal of allowing 12 million passengers to use the airport per year.

Those who live near to the airport have expressed their discontent toward the new £60m investment.

Bristol Airport Action Network (BAAN) have been fighting to stop the airport's expansion for over four years.

The campaign group made up of local residents even took the issue to High Court, as well as staging several protests in Bristol over recent years.

They have accused Bristol Airport of "ignoring all local opinion, including locally elected councils".

A member of BAAN, Stephen Clarke, said: “The airport’s press release talks about the supposed ‘transformational’ benefits of their plans; in fact the key people who will benefit will be the owners, Ontario Teachers Pension Plan, who stand to make even more money from car parking, whilst contributing to the destruction of our climate system. 

"The purported benefits will mean an extra million tonnes of carbon a year (more than double all the ground transport emissions of the whole of Bristol), a multi-storey car park on greenbelt land and nearly as many night flights as Heathrow. 

"Local residents fear further traffic congestion on the A38 and local roads as well as increased levels of air and noise pollution.

"In short, the lives of local residents and the environment will be transformed, but definitely not for the better.

“Expert evidence at the planning inquiry showed clearly that the promise of jobs is ‘much exaggerated’ as airports become increasingly automated and business people no longer use flights when they can meet online. 

"Yet again the airport mislead people by promising ‘net zero operations by 2030’; but they neglect to mention it doesn’t include the planes!”

The local campaign group announced they have teamed up with two Bristol universities to devise a plan of keeping the airport accountable for their actions.

“We feel the operators of the airport cannot be trusted and BAAN, with the support of Bristol University and UWE, are developing a website to ensure that they stick to their planning obligations, including the number of night flights," Stephen said.

"The tool will be freely available to interested individuals and community groups later in the autumn and people are invited to pre-register their interest by emailing BAANcc@protonmail.com. 

"When Bristol Airport put forward the plans for expansion in December 2018 we were in a climate crisis. 

"Now the emergency is immeasurably worse and impossible to deny."