Farnborough Airport Appeal: Comments Close 24 September

Farnborough Airport’s bid to fly thousands more weekend and bank holiday movements is no longer Rushmoor Borough Council’s to decide. The airport appealed on the grounds of non-determination, the appeal formally started on 19 August, and a Planning Inspector will now settle it at a public inquiry. (Rushmoor Borough Council)

Two dates matter to anyone in Farnham who cares about this.

• Tuesday 8 September: Waverley councillors vote on a motion to reaffirm the council’s opposition and to look at fighting the appeal formally.
• Thursday 24 September: the deadline for the public to comment directly to the Planning Inspectorate. Comments arriving later are not usually considered and are returned.

Farnborough Airport sits about four miles north of Farnham town centre. Rushmoor consulted councils and parishes across the airport’s 7,000 ft flight path, which is how the application reaches this side of the county boundary.

What the airport is asking for

Application 25/00615/REV does not ask to fly more aircraft in total. The annual cap of 50,000 movements stays. What it asks to change is when those movements happen and how heavy the aircraft can be.

A movement is one landing or one take-off, not a return trip.

The application seeks to vary conditions 2 and 6, and replace conditions 7 and 8, of the permission granted on 22 February 2022. In Rushmoor’s words, it would:

• increase non-weekday aircraft movements from 8,900 to 13,500 a year, a rise of 4,600
• change the permitted weight category from 50,000 to 80,000 kg to 55,000 to 80,000 kg, keeping the overall cap of 1,500 movements in that band
• within that cap, raise non-weekday movements by those heavier aircraft from 270 to 405 a year
• replace the two Public Safety Zone risk contour conditions with a new condition producing zone maps to Department for Transport requirements

Non-weekday means Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays. The jump from 8,900 to 13,500 is an increase of about 52 per cent in weekend and holiday movements.

How it became an appeal

Rushmoor received the application on 14 November. In May it formally asked the airport for more information under Regulation 25 of the environmental impact assessment regulations, to add to the application’s Environmental Statement. The council said it needed that material to understand the likely significant effects of the proposal.

The two sides had agreed to extend the determination period while the council waited. At the end of June, the airport confirmed it would not extend it after all, and would appeal on the ground that the council had failed to decide in time.

That transfers the decision. In Rushmoor’s own words: “Now that the appeal has been submitted, the Council no longer has the power to decide the application.”

The council must file its Statement of Case, and agree an initial Statement of Common Ground with the airport, by 24 September, the same day the public deadline falls.

A separate application from 2023, reference 23/00794/REVPP, is still pending with Rushmoor, with no published timetable.

What Waverley councillors will vote on

The motion, proposed by Councillor Steve Williams and seconded by Councillor Julian Spence, is item 14.2 on the agenda for full Council on Tuesday 8 September. (Waverley Borough Council)

It notes that the council resolved to oppose the expansion in March 2025, and that Waverley has already told Rushmoor its environmental assessment work was inadequate in scope, including on noise, air quality, climate and the Surrey Hills National Landscape.

If passed, it would ask officers to:

• engage urgently with Rushmoor to establish its position on the application
• assess whether Waverley should take part in the appeal formally, including submitting detailed representations, asking to appear at a hearing, and applying for Rule 6 status at a public inquiry
• do so only where Waverley could add something rather than duplicate Rushmoor’s evidence
• identify the specific evidence Waverley could contribute, on aircraft noise, air quality, climate and carbon, biodiversity and the Surrey Hills National Landscape
• investigate joint action with Surrey County Council, neighbouring authorities and parish and town councils
• bring a report back to the Executive and then to full Council setting out the legal and financial implications

Rule 6 status is the formal footing that lets a body other than the applicant and the local planning authority take a full part in an inquiry, with its own evidence and cross-examination.

Why the motion names Farnham

The motion asks officers to look at air quality “including the relationship with Farnham’s Air Quality Management Area”.

That area is real and it is old. Waverley AQMA No.1, Farnham was declared on 8 July 2005 for nitrogen dioxide, and amended on 23 August 2007. It is one of two in the borough, the other being Godalming. (DEFRA UK-AIR AQMA register)

An air quality management area is declared when a council finds that national objectives for a pollutant are not being met. Farnham’s has been in place for more than twenty years, which is the point the motion is making: the town is already carrying a measured air quality problem, and the appeal will consider cumulative effects.

What it means for you

If you want the Inspector to hear from you, the route is now the Planning Inspectorate, not either council.

• Deadline: 24 September 2026. Late representations are not usually considered and are returned.
• Appeal reference: 6013192.
• Comment online through the government’s comment on a planning appeal service.
• Or write to The Planning Inspectorate, c/o QUADIENT, 69 Buckingham Avenue, Slough, SL1 4PN.

If you already commented to Rushmoor on the application, you do not have to do it again. The council says it has forwarded the representations it received to the Inspectorate, and they will be considered. The same service lets you modify or withdraw what you sent.

The appeal will be decided at a public inquiry. Rushmoor says the arrangements are still being finalised with the Inspectorate and that it will publish details once they are confirmed, so a date for the inquiry itself is not yet public.

Related

• Farnham planning news, including what is in and out for decision locally.
• Farnham roadworks and travel, for the A31 and the town centre works.
• Farnham train times to London.

Sources

• Rushmoor Borough Council, Farnborough airport planning application for the application’s contents and reference, the Regulation 25 request, the non-determination appeal, the 19 August start, the public inquiry, the Statement of Case deadline, the appeal reference, the comment routes and the 24 September deadline, the 7,000 ft flight path consultation and the pending 2023 application.
• Waverley Borough Council, Council agenda, 8 September 2026, item 14.2, for the motion’s full text, its proposer and seconder and the March 2025 resolution.
• DEFRA UK-AIR, Air Quality Management Area register for Waverley AQMA No.1 Farnham, the pollutant and the declaration and amendment dates.
• Comment on a planning appeal, the Planning Inspectorate’s service.

All sources checked on 5 September 2026.