Bristol Airport flight path villages get no vote on expansion
15.04.09
Representatives of villages directly under the flightpath of Bristol Airport will have no vote on its expansion plans. But due to the delegation of North Somerset Council's planning powers, councillors representing areas 15 miles away, south of Weston, will, the Mercury reports.
At a meeting of North Somerset Council this week, Clevedon East representative David Shopland failed to convince other councillors that it would be undemocratic for anything less than the full council to determine the application. He told the meeting it was a unique application which affected every single voter in the district, and as such it should not 'be decided by about a third of the council on the south area sub committee'.
The airport technically sits in Wrington, part of the council's south area. This means councillors representing Barrow Gurney, Cleeve or Backwell – the North Somerset villages most affected by the airport – don't have a direct vote on the planning application, while those from areas as far away as Locking, Bleadon or Kewstoke, near Weston, do.
A spokesman for North Somerset told the newspaper that the application would go to the other area committees for discussion before going to the south area, and possibly to the council's most senior planning body, its planning and regulatory committee, made up of 14 councillors from across the district, for a final decision.
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