Public Inquiry into LBA night flights, 11-14 March

GALBA goes to Public Inquiry to stop Leeds Bradford Airport’s unlawful night flights.

Today, a Public Inquiry in Leeds will start to consider the legal meaning of the night time flying rules that apply to Leeds Bradford Airport. A Planning Inspector will decide whether the airport has been breaking those rules for the past three years and whether it can continue to fly the same number of planes at night in the future.

Andy Tait, who is giving evidence for GALBA at the Inquiry, said: “We’re confident that the Planning Inspector will uphold the plain meaning of the night flight rules. They put a limit on the number and type of planes allowed to fly between 11pm and 7am to protect the health of people under the flight path and to protect our environment.”

“Over the last three summers, LBA has flown 2,145 more planes than allowed at night. They’ve tried and failed to persuade the Council to reinterpret the meaning of the night flight rules and we intend to make sure they fail again at this Inquiry.”

Notes

1. Public Inquiry details: the hearing will commence at 9.30 on Tuesday 11 March and end at 17.00. The Inquiry is expected to last until Friday 14 March, with each subsequent day running from 10.00 until 17.00. It will take place in the Council Chamber in Leeds Civic Hall.
2. Climate Change Committee v LBA – passenger growth: the CCC published the 7th Carbon Budget on 27 February. In section 7.6, covering the aviation sector, it said that for aviation to reach net zero by 2050, passenger demand should decrease by 0.6% between 2025 and 2030, increase by just 2% by 2035, compared to 2025, and by no more than 10% by 2040, compared to 2025 (see 7.6.2). LBA’s ‘Vision 2030’ seeks to increase passenger numbers from four million to seven million per year by 2030, a rise of 57%, and to 10 million per year, a rise of 143%.
3. Night flight rules: LBA operates under a cap on night time flights under its planning conditions. Leeds City Council has responsibility for monitoring and enforcing those conditions. They define the Summer Season as British Summer Time, which was 31 March to 27 October in 2024. The night time period is defined as 23:00 to 07:00 and an aircraft movement is defined as a landing or a departure. The maximum number of night time aircraft movements in the Summer Season is set at 2,800 and in the Winter Season at 1,200. There is more information on GALBA’s website.
4. CLEUD applications: in late 2023, LBA submitted four applications for Certificates of Lawful Existing Use or Development. These sought to show that LBA had been breaking the night flight rules for over ten years and therefore those rules had to be reinterpreted to allow LBA to continue as it had been behaving. During 2024, Leeds City Council rejected all of the CLEUDs and LBA used its automatic right of appeal, which has resulted in the current Public Inquiry.