Manchester Airport has applied for planning permission to development land within its Operational Area which lies to the south west of Wilmslow Old Road and and to the west of the Aviation Viewing Park.
The scheme includes the development of a combined bussing and motor transport service centre consisting of a motor transport building, a bus washing building and a public long stay car park providing 2,700 spaces.
Manchester Airports Group's proposal also includes amendments to the layout of Wilmslow Old Road and the demolition of four 2 bedroom residential properties, known as Vicarage Cottages, which are owned by the airport.
If approved the new facilities would replace the airport's bussing operation, which was was temporarily relocated to the World Freight Terminal in May 2016, and the airport's existing motor transport facility which is located within Hangar 4 at the World Freight Terminal. According to the airport this building has structural issues and a review has concluded that the cost required to re-furbish and maintain the facility to a suitable standard in the long term would be un-economical.
Documents submitted to Manchester City Council state "There is an obvious synergy in locating the bussing operation and motor transport facility together given the same services and amenities that they both require. Co-locating them will create a more efficient use of land and will eliminate the movement of buses between two different sites."
According the MAG the provision of car parking capacity at the airport is at a lower rate than the growth in passenger numbers with around 72% of passengers currently still using the car, with either driving themselves and parking or being picked up and dropped off by others including by taxi.
The application states "These latter methods have a far greater traffic generation impact. After public transport access, the best means of reducing impacts of movements on the road network by private car is through the provision of on-site car parking. This can, if correctly priced, provide an attractive alternative to 'drop-off' and 'pick-up' activity, which generates twice the number of road trips than parking at the Airport.
"This activity is still the predominant means of accessing the Airport and if we are to maintain efforts to discourage drop-off and pick-up then sufficient on-site parking capacity needs to be available."
The plans can be viewed on Manchester City Council's planning portal by searching for planning reference 122638/FO/2019.
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Comments
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"This can, if correctly priced, provide an attractive alternative to 'drop-off' and 'pick-up' activity" - Ha ha ha Since the airport have made it compulsory to pay regardless of dropping off or picking up!! Does the airport know what "correctly priced" means?? All they seem to do is monopolise all the services that people who use the airport to make money at every possible opportunity. Has the airport ever heard of healthy competition - I don't think so!!!
It remains to be seen what system our councillors (who are up for election on May 2nd 2019 and presumably want YOUR vote) have in mind to make all these out-of-town motorists pay to leave their cars in the proposed new car parks instead of clogging up YOUR streets. Vote them out, I say - which is what I intend.
It is possible to park near the airport for less than £40 per day but some of the parking areas are a fair distance from the terminal and Wilmslow isn’t therefore such a worse alternative as you may think.
There is no way that the airport can hope to tackle the number of pick ups and drop offs if the price of parking far exceeds the cost of taxis and I can't see any way in which the cost could be made less.
Apart from banning taxis altogether or banning private cars (i.e relatives and friends) from coming close to the airport then they just have to accept that traffic is and always will be a problem. Charging doesn't seem to have made much of a difference.
Instead of building another car park, they should build a terminal for taxis (or private vehicles) and then ensure that they lay on plenty of buses to get you to and from the terminal, especially at peak times.
Room for improvement there, I think.
The airport has sprawled across the local area and turned into an expensive car park that will soon impinge on Wilmslow. I notice our councillor Don Stockton is a member of the Manchester Airport Consultative Committee. What does that involve then - on our behalf - and what influence does he have on what the airport gets up to?
In my opinion, Heathrow has greatly outgrown itself and should have moved years ago to a better location as did Munich and Athens, the only two completely new airports in Europe, I think, in the recent past. In the UK the only airport capable of being turned into a well-designed layout is Stansted.