Regular readers will know that the management of Leeds Bradford Airport (LBA) is desperate to increase the number of flights at the airport, even though climate scientists have repeatedly pointed out that airports should not be allowed to expand at present if the UK is to reach its 2050 net zero target.
LBA’s chief executive, Vincent Hodder, is so desperate to expand that he is prepared to breach the planning conditions imposed by the airport’s regulator Leeds City Council by allowing more planes than permitted, to fly at night.
LBA repeatedly breaches night-flight planning conditions
In 2022 and 2023, LBA flew hundreds more aircraft than permitted at night during the summer months. And guess what? It’s happened again in 2024. Between 31 March and 27 October this year, the Group for Action on Leeds Bradford Airport (GALBA) found that there were 820 more flights between 11pm and 7am than permitted under local planning regulations.
So, for the third year running, GALBA has lodged a complaint with Leeds City Council about LBA’s unlawful behaviour. GALBA has also paid for independent, verified, industry-standard data to confirm the offence, and provided this to Leeds City Council to help it take enforcement action against LBA.
Enforcement action – ay, there’s the rub
Leeds City Council issued a Breach of Condition Notice against LBA for its 2022 breach, but took no enforcement action at all over its similar breach in 2023, even though this was a criminal offence. Will this happen again this year? It would let LBA get away with flouting the rules year after year after year and make a mockery of Leeds City Council’s role as a planning regulator.
Everyone has seen the appalling consequences of the water regulator, Ofwat, failing to take swift, strong action against companies such as Yorkshire Water, who have been dumping in our rivers with impunity for years. Leeds City Council’s inaction is resulting in hundreds of unlawful flights pumping out greenhouse gas emissions, noise and particulate matter across Leeds and beyond. Is it not time for Leeds City Council to step up and fulfil its responsibilities?
Our society is based on the rule of law. What does it mean when you can break rules with impunity? Or is it just wealthy, powerful companies that can get away with repeatedly breaking the rules? You have to wonder: if you or I or a small business regularly broke planning rules, would we be treated as leniently as has LBA?
Leeds City Council rejects LBA’s applications for Certificates of Lawful Existing Use or Development
Of course, Hodder, the airport’s chief executive, now says that LBA hasn’t broken the night-flight rules at all. This is a notable change of tack from his public apology on local television in 2022, when he described the offence as a mistake that would not be repeated.
However, after failing to comply with the Breach of Condition Notice in 2023, he announced that he had a different interpretation of the night flight conditions, which meant that LBA had been complying with the rules all along.
Towards the end of 2023, he submitted four applications for Certificates of Lawful Existing Use or Development (CLEUDs), which aimed to force Leeds City Council to reinterpret the meaning of the night-flight rules. It’s an interesting approach: the regulated reinterprets the rules for the regulator!
However, Leeds City Council didn’t agree with Hodder and rejected three of his CLEUDs. The Council asked for more time to decide on the fourth application, but LBA refused, so that one remains undetermined.
LBA has now appealed against Leeds City Council to the Planning Inspectorate, in the hope their CLEUD applications will be approved. GALBA will be a full party to the Planning Inquiry in March next year, to present evidence and legal arguments to support Leeds City Council’s decisions and make sure that the undetermined CLEUD is also rejected. We remain confident that LBA’s attempts to reinterpret the night-flight rules will once again fail on the facts and the law.
Take LBA’s claims with a dollop of salt
Hodder likes to claim that expanding the airport would be good for business and the economy. Here’s a fact check on that claim. An analysis of Office for National Statistics data, published in May this year, shows that business air travel and economic growth are ‘decoupling’. Spending by UK business on air travel fell by 22% between 2019 and 2023, despite real-terms GDP growing by 1.8% over the same period.
The New Economics Foundation’s 2023 report ‘Losing Altitude’ – peer reviewed by the distinguished economist John Siraut – concludes that although there was a huge growth in total passenger numbers up to 2019, business passengers’ market share halved between 2013 and 2022. It’s always worth taking Hodder’s claims with a large dose of salt.
Finally, Hodder is fond of talking about ‘sustainable growth’ at LBA but this phrase is a contradiction in terms when it comes to flying. More flights can only mean more emissions, because there are no solutions to aviation’s greenhouse gas problem that can be scaled up fast enough to halve the industry’s emissions by 2030 or reduce them to net zero by 2050.
This is why the government’s climate watchdog, the Climate Change Committee, has repeatedly said that airport expansion must not be allowed at this time. The recent deadly floods in Spain serve as a grim reminder of the urgent need to reduce all greenhouse gas emissions as quickly as possible.
GALBA stands ready to fight back against every attempt by LBA to break the rules, damage our climate, harm human health, and pollute the air. Stay tuned for the next exciting episode of The People v Leeds Bradford Airport!
