Yorkshire Bylines has published a great article which highlights some of the many problems with the airport expansion.
So when a planning application lands in their in-tray that would mean emissions from the airport become higher than emissions from the whole of the rest of Leeds by 2026, it’s hard to see how they could possibly approve it. Not only would the expansion make their target of carbon neutrality by 2030 an impossibility, as well as rendering the time and money spent on the climate emergency so far a complete waste, it would also have huge detrimental effects on residents’ quality of life.
More topically, with the current pandemic hanging over us, the highlight the absurdity of even considering furthering their plans now.
But putting all that to one side, the Covid-19 pandemic has quite probably changed our way of life forever. With most flights currently grounded, and the potential for flyers having to quarantine for up to two weeks upon entering a new country for the foreseeable future, expanding airports now would make no sense and would only serve to waste time, money and resources. In addition, with the stark reality of the worst recession in living memory on the horizon and a huge spike in unemployment, people simply aren’t going to be jumping on planes to Tenerife when all this blows over. Rubbing salt in the wound of unemployment, financial worry and, for some people, the pain of losing a loved one, by diminishing their air quality, polluting their homes with noise and irreparably damaging the environment for future generations would be, quite frankly, amoral. For more information on the proposed expansion is available HERE.