East
Belfast
News: 'Residents' Fury'
The Environment Minister DUP MLA Edwin Poots has announced that after careful
consideration, he has decided to lift the cap on passenger numbers at Belfast City Airport, which limited the number of seats sold to two million a year.
However, whilst the airport has welcomed the news, residents' group Belfast City Airport Watch, has issued a press
release detailing the fury of residents at the move. In their statement they say:
“The Minister is flying in the face of a recommendation by the Assembly’s Environment Committee which said, just
weeks ago, that the airport’s stipulated passenger limit should remain in place for now”
“There will now be nothing to stop all 48,000 of the permitted annual flights in and out of the airport from using the
larger, noisier type of planes which have been operating there – and that will greatly increase the misery of people
living under the flight path.
However, Belfast City Airport's Chief Executive Brian Ambrose welcomed the move indicating that it would
contribute significantly to the local economy and that it followed the airport fulfilling the requirements set by the
department with the installation of a noise and tracking monitoring system.
Dr Liz Fawcett from Belfast City Airport Watch questioned why the Minister was placing the commercial interests of
the airport above the health and quality of life, of residents.
Editorial
Given that the Assembly's Environment Committee, having heard from all interested parties, were
persuaded sufficiently to state that passenger cap should remain in place for now, Mr. Poots must have been move convinced by
the arguments of the airport and/or other lobbyists. So the Minister should publish these more compelling
arguments.
Given that the committee indicated the cap should remain, what is the purpose in consultation and what is the purpose of the Assembly's Committees, if Minister's can simply ignore them?
In the minds of many, the Northern Ireland Assembly is nothing more than expensive talking shop, a new tier of administrators, administering other administrators, Mr. Poots actions have done nothing more than to hammer another nail in a flawed system of government, whose processes appear to the lay-person to be a circumvention of
democracy.
If the issue was just the passenger cap then it might not be
such a huge issue, but it isn't, its the fact
that larger nosier aircraft will fly over a densely
populated city, its the fact that there is a runway extension application pending and its the fact that someday soon, the air traffic movement cap
may well be the target and the fear that the original planning agreement
will be dissected slice by slice.
Last Updated:
7th December 2010 |
