Councillors call for locals to benefit from airport expansion
04.11.06
Liverpool Airport will be asked to push for local residents to get the lions share of the thousands of new jobs expected to be created under its massive expansion plans. A group of councillors called for the move in the local authority's official response to Liverpool Airport's plan to treble passenger numbers by 2030.
The councillors asked the council to toughen up demands to create local jobs, ensure noise pollution does not get worse and protect air quality. And they criticised the public consultation carried out by the airport, insisting it had failed to properly include local residents in Speke and Garston.
The city council's executive board backed Liverpool Airport's expansion plans last month, although planning permission will still have to be applied for once final plans have been drawn up. The airport wants to treble passenger numbers by 2030 and increase cargo traffic from 15,000 tonnes a year to 220,000 tonnes.
The world cargo centre would be south of the complex, on Green Belt farmland around the former historic village of Oglet. This would be linked to an extended runway, up from the current 2,286m length to 2,750m.
The runway extension is vital to encourage flights to further destinations, and to take long-haul planes like Boeing 767s and Airbus 330s, capable of flying as far as Shanghai. The aim is to open up more routes both for passenger flights to the US and for freight links with the Far East.
The entire plan would create a total of somewhere between 7,000 and 9,000 extra jobs, which could take the number employed directly and indirectly from 2,300 to 11,300 by 2030.
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