A CRUCIAL meeting is being held next week that could determine the future expansion of Bristol International Airport.

Environmental protesters are attending the special meeting of North Somerset Council's south area planning committee on Wednesday, at which planning officers have recommended councillors approve plans for the airport's expansion.

It will be the last chance for North Somerset councillors to put their views across before a decision is made to grant approval to the airport increasing in size by 66 per cent, with the potential to transport 10 million passengers a year.

Woodspring MP Liam Fox has already urged council leader Nigel Ashton to withhold any council approval of the expansion until "transport infrastructure issues have been sorted out".

Independent district councillor Tom Collinson has also urged his fellow councillors not to grant the airport planning permission before the full impact of expansion is revealed.

He said: "Given the admitted future runway capacity of 30 flights per hour, it is self-evident that peak traffic at the airport entrance could be 3,000 car movements per hour and more than 2,000 per hour on approach roads of much less than half that capacity, with no adequate commensurate highway improvement proposals for such high traffic intensity.

"Airport contribution to the South Bristol Link Road is rightly declared by Liam Fox to be a 'red herring' on such a vaguely aspirational, expensive, uncertain seven-year development, which in any case is remote from the airport."

Mr Collinson said that both experts and residents have demonstrated the unacceptability of current road congestion, particularly in Barrow Gurney, for which a local bypass is "a paramount requirement even now".

Stop Bristol Airport Expansion spokesman Jeremy Birch urged North Somerset's councillors to turn down the airport's planning application, or cap its passenger numbers at eight million, "until real public transport solutions and quieter and fuel-efficient planes are already in place".

Bristol airport chief executive officer Robert Sinclair said: "We are committed to working towards a mutually agreed outcome which can be determined locally. Approval of this application will secure the future of the airport and its contribution to the region for the next 10 years and beyond."