Expansion legal challenge
What is the score with SBAE High Court challenge, does anyone have any update on how long this is going to drag on?
Everything seems to have gone very quiet.
On 26 April this year the StopBristolAirportExpansion people said they were to apply for a judicial review of the local authority's decision to approve the expansion plans.
I still don't know how this is is possible because the legislation states clearly that applications for judicial reviews must be made within three months of the decision being challenged which, in this case, was in May 2010. They were even well out of time to challenge the sec of state's decison not to call in the application which was announced in September 2010.
Recently the local press pointed out that opponents of the Bristol City Council's decision to only part register the site of the new Bristol City FC ground as a town green had only three months in which to apply for a judicial review.
Yet in all the reports about SBAE's belated judicial review application the three-month rule hasn't been mentioned in the local press so far as I'm aware.
In exceptional cases (may not be the precise legal term) a judge can extend the three month limit but it's difficult to see how that could apply with the expansion approval which was announced publicly at the time. In any case it's the local authority being challenged, not the airport, and council tax payers will be picking up the tab, unless the applicants are made to at the end of the day.
Profit for last year
Recently the Bristol Evening Post reported that 'last year' the airport had made a profit of £23.6 million on a turnover of £57.6 million. No further details were given.
Recent Airport Experience
Last month Mrs MV and I used the airport to and from Geneva with easyJet.
Security was a breeze during the very busy Saturday lunchtime period with six or seven stations open and we were through in three or four minutes. There also appeared to be more public seating in the departure areas compared with last year, though we used one of the food outlet areas for lunch.
We used the western apron walkway for the first time to depart, from gate 15 the penultimate gate of this 400-metre corridor. Having read a number of complaints about its length and stairs in various trip report sites we couldn't understand what the fuss was about, and neither of us is in the first flush of youth. On the return journey we parked at the aircraft stand at the far end of the walkway and found the stroll to Immigration very pleasant after an hour and a half seated on the aircraft, especially with the views from the first floor level windows of the western apron and beautiful countryside beyond.
We were one of six 150-seat plus aircraft to land in a twenty-minute period yet the queues at Immigration were not long at all with about six Border Agency desks open. In fact, we have new e-passports and there was a member of staff on hand to assist those unfamiliar with the readers so we were able to bypass what queue there was.
Having criticised the airport in the past for long security queues and inadequate levels of departure area seating our recent experiences have suggested that lessons have been learned and remedial action taken. In April we passed through security in a Monday morning rush period and again were through in three or four minutes.