Urgent rethink needed on Leeds Bradford Airport expansion plan

I AM raising urgent concerns about the Leeds Bradford Airport planning application that has just been launched with three weeks for consultation. This is a woefully short time period at a time when the future of flying is in serious jeopardy anyway.

The consultation period must be extended if at all possible. There are 200 documents to read. As someone living under the flight path, the increase in flight times for me is unacceptable.

Leeds have committed to halving current carbon emissions by 2025 I think and I fail to see how this can be achieved with an increase in flying. It doesn’t make any sense at all.

Going from 38,000 flights to 70,000 flights a year is just crazy now. No one wants to fly now and even if they did the air pollution impact is simply untenable if we are to prevent climate change finishing us all off if Covid-19 doesn’t in the meantime.

There is also the impact of the increased traffic to get to the airport. The whole thing is ridiculous.

Editor’s note: first and foremost - and rarely have I written down these words with more sincerity - I hope this finds you well.

Almost certainly you are here because you value the quality and the integrity of the journalism produced by The Yorkshire Post’s journalists - almost all of which live alongside you in Yorkshire, spending the wages they earn with Yorkshire businesses - who last year took this title to the industry watchdog’s Most Trusted Newspaper in Britain accolade.

And that is why I must make an urgent request of you: as advertising revenue declines, your support becomes evermore crucial to the maintenance of the journalistic standards expected of The Yorkshire Post. If you can, safely, please buy a paper or take up a subscription. We want to continue to make you proud of Yorkshire’s National Newspaper but we are going to need your help.

Postal subscription copies can be ordered by calling 0330 4030066 or by emailing [email protected]. Vouchers, to be exchanged at retail sales outlets - our newsagents need you, too - can be subscribed to by contacting subscriptions on 0330 1235950 or by visiting www.localsubsplus.co.uk where you should select The Yorkshire Post from the list of titles available.

If you want to help right now, download our tablet app from the App / Play Stores. Every contribution you make helps to provide this county with the best regional journalism in the country.

Sincerely. Thank you.

James Mitchinson

Editor