MANCHESTER Airport's plan for a massive expansion to cope with 50 million passengers a year by 2030 looks set to provoke a fresh battle with environmental campaigners.
Four listed buildings are being earmarked for demolition in the next 25 years as part of the proposals.
And a number of woodlands - one of them a Site of Special Scientific Interest - also look likely to be affected.
Campaigners who fought to stop the second runway are now getting ready for a new fight to prevent climate change and protect the landscape.
A draft Land Use Plan, which is part of the airport's masterplan, names Cotteril Clough, an ancient SSSI woodland, as under threat. It is thought to be Greater Manchester's most diverse valley woodland and is home to three varieties of woodpecker, 79 species of spider and a rare beetle, Dropephylla Grandiloqua.
Nine sites of Special Biological Importance (SBI) are also at risk.
They are Sunbank Wood, Marl Pit, near Cotteril Clough, the Castle Hill Road Cutting, ponds near the runway, Well and Double Woods, Hooksbank Wood, Holly Bank Wood and Arthur's Wood.
Arthur's Wood achieved notoriety during the second runway campaign as eco-warrior Swampy and other protesters camped there.
Woodland areas around the airport contain protected species such as Great Crested Newts, several species of bats, badgers and water voles.
Vanessa Hall, a Green Party councillor on Manchester city council, who took part in the second runway protests, said campaigners were gearing up to join forces for a new fight.
Plans
She said: "A 2003 estimate suggests that the aviation industry costs é13bn in tax breaks, hidden subsidies, ill health and environmental clean-up. While every other sector is focusing on reducing emissions, aviation, the most highly-polluting transport mode on earth, continues to grow."
Four Grade II listed buildings could be demolished by 2030 under the airport's plans.
They are Old Thatch, a cottage on Ringway Road which is the last remaining building of the former hamlet of Heyhead; Hale Top Farm cottages, on Thorley Lane; Rose Cottage, on Hasty Lane; and Cloughbank Farm, on Old Wilmslow Road.
Terminals One and Three look set to become one terminal, which would be extended to handle 25 million passengers a year.
Terminal Two would be extended to handle another 25 million.
Bosses say the airport's growth is vital for the prosperity of the region and would create more than 22,000 jobs.
Their Land Use Plan says they may also consider building a full-length taxiway alongside the second runway after 2015. The airport control tower could also be moved and more car parks will be built.
John Twigg, Manchester Airport's planning and infrastructure director, said: "We will work closely with English Nature to protect wildlife in advance of any work being carried out.
"Consents will be needed before we can demolish any listed buildings. That means we will have to make a compelling case.
"We have experience of doing this type of sensitive work from our second runway scheme."
What do you think of the airport plans? Have your say.
Comments
Login or Register to comment
Hello I rent the listed building Rose cottage on Hasty Lane. When I moved in the property was practically derilict I have cleaned and painted the property. The Airport have little interest in the up keep of these properties. It simply driven by money the airport is not that busy the carparks are not full flights are not full its expansion seems ludicrous to me not just because my home will be destroyed but simply because the prosperity of the region does not not depend on the growth of the airport. It sits next to Newall green and Wythenshawe two of the poorest areas in Manchester what has the airport done for them. Most of its employees appear to be Polish or French exchange students so its claims of providing community jobs seem strange to me. We have Rabbits, Foxes, Badgers and protected newts in our garden is the airports impact on the environment to allowed to roller coaster its way on? Probably simply because its links with the council mean that destruction of english heritage and countryside can be signed off with the payment of a small fine. Try to get a fence higher than two metres through your local planning office see how you go on. Yet the airport can leave beutiful buildings to rot and tear down three hundred year old trees. Is this right?