Airport expansion gets lift-off

Belfast City Airport: Granted planning permission

A new £20m terminal for Belfast City Airport has got lift-off after a legal challenge to block it was dismissed in the High Court.

The bid to block the terminal and associated facilities was mounted by the rival Belfast International Airport, owned by Welsh-based TBI.

Their application for a judicial review of planning permission was based on environmental concerns.

In Monday's reserved judgement, Mr Justice Kerr held the planning service of the Department of the Environment had acted properly in granting planning permission.

He said that during last Friday's hearing, counsel for BIA had claimed that the environmental impact statement was incomplete because there was no assessment of effects on ecology, particulary flora and fauna.

But, said the judge, the DoE was entitled to hold that such matters were unlikely to be significantly effected by the development and therefore were not required to be included in the environmental statement.

Mr Justice Kerr refused to grant leave for a judicial review which leaves BCA free to go ahead with building work which is already under way.

BCA, owned by Canadian aerospace company Bombardier-Shorts, plans to nearly double passenger traffic to two million a year.