ILKLEY Green Party campaigner Ros Brown has hit out at the “inadequacy” of a council website to deal with the large volume of comments on Leeds Bradford Airport’s planning application for a new terminal.

Dr Brown said although the deadline was extended to July 10 people had experienced problems uploading their comments to the Leeds City Council website.

“The nature of this public consultation on such a significant planning application has been completely inappropriate and inadequate during the Covid-19 lockdown period,” she said.

Dr Brown added: “This planning application if approved will increase passenger numbers from 4,000,000 per year to 7,100,000 by 2030. This increase would nearly double greenhouse gas emissions and is unacceptable for Leeds and all local areas trying to act responsibly to reduce emissions within the Climate Emergency Declarations many councils have made.

“Six months ago the Court of Appeal ruled expansion at Heathrow airport was unlawful as it did not consider the Paris Agreement. This expansion too would fly in the face of the requirement to achieve sustainable development as defined in the National Planning Policy Framework.”