| The Welsh Assembly Government has today called in a planning application for the building of an aircraft hangar at Swansea Airport. It has issued a directive to Swansea Council not to grant planning application until further investigation is completed.
Anne Morris Davies, a Gower resident, commented: 'This is great news for the people of Swansea and anybody interested in the protection of our beautiful Gower. The Welsh Assembly has obviously recognised the importance of the proposed development, otherwise they wouldn't have taken such a rare step as to call in the planning application.'
Roy Jones from Friends of the Earth Swansea, added: 'It is very important that the Welsh Assembly takes this seriously. The current and planned expansion of the airport will clearly have a harmful effect on the Special Area of Conservation (SAC). The Council is not supposed to allow any developments that harm SACs under European Law.'
The application which now has been stalled has attracted huge opposition. More than 350 letters of objection and extensive group representations flooded into the Council and there have been numerous submissions to the Welsh Assembly. The Gower Society, for one, has also registered their 'strongest possible objection' to the proposals.
Dr Rolf Jucker from SANE (Swansea Airport No Expansion) was pleased with the Assembly's decision but warned of complacency: 'This is obviously good news for anybody interested in real democracy. Now people might get a chance to have their say on this important issue, rather than it being rushed through behind closed doors. This delay should be used to put pressure on the airport operators to present their 10-year business plan, so that there can be a proper public consultation and an independent Environmental Impact Assessment about any proposed expansion. It is also time to look very critically at the spurious economic arguments about the airport's supposed benefits. A closer look reveals that the figures simply don't add up.' |
