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Latest
figures show JLA is one of the UK’s
‘greenest’ Airports
LIVERPOOL John Lennon Airport (JLA) has received a double dose
of good news this week with national recognition for its
environmental carbon reduction commitments and statistics showing a
record breaking Summer season for numbers of passengers.
Figures recently published by The Environment Agency show that Peel
Airports is in the top 14% of UK organisations participating in the
Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) Scheme and one of the
environmentally ‘greenest’ airports in the UK.
At the same time, latest figures for JLA show that passenger numbers
have continued to break previous records in recent months, bringing
the Airport its busiest Summer ever with over 3.6 million passengers
choosing to fly via the Airport between April and October 2011.
The publication of The Environment Agency’s first ever League Table
of organisations participating in the Carbon Reduction Commitment
Scheme for 2010/11, shows that the Airport is delivering on
commitments to minimise its impact on the environment. Peel Airports
are ranked 275th in a league table of some 2015 participating
organisations from across the UK, including most other airports,
ranking Peel Airports in the top 14% of all participating
organisations.
By participating in the scheme, staff at JLA have been measuring and
reducing energy consumption across the site and implementing a
variety of initiatives all aimed at cutting the amount of energy
used at the airport. These include new lighting control systems
across the terminal building that automatically turn off lights in
areas where they are not needed or reduce levels of electric
lighting when ambient lighting levels increase. New low energy
lights have also been installed on parts of the taxiways used by
aircraft prior to departure or upon arrival at JLA, in addition to a
programme of increased staff awareness so that all employees
contribute to cutting energy use where possible.
Whilst continuing to minimise its impact on the environment, the
airport has also seen growth in passengers. Each of the past four
months have been the busiest in the Airport’s history with July,
August, September and October monthly passenger numbers, higher than
previous totals for the time of year. The highest month August, saw
over 580,000 travellers pass through the terminal - the busiest
month in the Airport’s 78 year history.
The start of the school Summer holidays in July brought increased
numbers of holidaymakers departing from JLA. Despite the difficult
economic climate, holidaymakers across the North West clearly
continued to value their Summer holiday abroad, taking advantage of
the many value for money flights available, with the added
convenience of flying from their local airport. This year low cost
operators easyJet and Ryanair operated flights to more summer sun
destinations than ever before with a number of new holiday resorts
featured for the first time.
Growing numbers of passengers also capitalised on the convenience of
being able to travel to destinations across the world, by starting
their journey from Liverpool with KLM. The airline’s flights to
Amsterdam Schiphol with its hundreds of onward connections continued
to prove popular.
Andrew Dutton, Peel Airports Head of Environment commented:-
"These results show that we take our environmental commitments
seriously and whilst there is always room for improvement everyone
here at the Airport is doing their bit. We are continually looking
at ways to reduce the environmental impact of running an airport
such as Liverpool, working in partnership with the many other
organisations based here who share a common goal by putting the
environment high on the agenda when it comes to how we each run our
business."
Craig Richmond, CEO of Peel Airports added:- "This news
clearly demonstrates our commitment to growing the business but not
at the expense of environmental impacts. We have always believed
that it is possible to combine running our business in a sustainable
way at the same time as growing passenger numbers, benefiting the
region’s travellers and helping the local economy. This has been a
very good Summer for the Airport with these latest figures exceeding
our expectations.. I’m sure the poor British summer once again
helped, but the great range of value for money flights from
Liverpool have continued to prove extremely popular. Two weeks of
sunshine clearly remains very important for families throughout the
North West despite the gloomy economic climate."
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Liverpool
Coastguard Station To Close!
PUBLIC and Union officials have expressed anger at scrapping of
Liverpool's Coastguard Station after a long campaign to save it. The
decision that was announced on Tuesday, 22 November 2011, was to
close Liverpool Coastguard Station as part of cost savings. 8 other
sites will now be closed as well as Liverpool. The shipping
minister, Mike Penning, said the station at Crosby would remain as
an operational hub to train volunteers, but the Public and
Commercial Services union said the plans were vague. Mr Penning said
that:- "The rescue facilities in the Liverpool area will be
enhanced, we will utilise the buildings we have, so we will not rent
new buildings for the sake of it. We will have more trainers, more
enhanced staff and the volunteers will have a much better service
for the public to rely on." In reaction Paul Kirby, PCS
representative at Liverpool Coastguard, told the press that:-
"We are very angry. We are going to fight as there are still 2 years
to go." Sefton Central Labour MP, Bill Esterson, demanded in
the Commons to know why the government had rejected those ideas by
campaigners. Many suggested that it would be better to convert
Liverpool station into new National Search and Rescue Centre than
building a new purpose-built station. Now many of the members of the
public who use the coastline and a lot of businesses attached to it
are saying that the consultation following the original announcement
of the closure plans had been a "complete and utter waste of
time" and "a slap in the face for all who took part."
Other campaigners have commented that:- "We know
savings need to be made, but this service was underfunded from day
one; now these changes! In our view it will directly put lives at
risk here on the coast of Sefton and along the coastline of
Merseyside. That is not forgetting the other areas the centre
covers, like the Cumbrian coastline and the Isle of Man. This
closure is a cut too far."
An email press release sent out to the media on 22 November 2011,
from the MCGA read:- "I am writing to let you know that
following the independent review of the Reponses of the second
period of consultation on our proposals to modernise Her Majesty's
Coastguard, the Secretary of State for Transport has today announced
the Government's decision. This can be found
online. This means that we have now
begun the process of moving to a national networked Coastguard
operation with a Maritime Operations Centre (MOC) at its heart.
We're also able to announce today that the MOC will be located near
Fareham in Hampshire at a purpose built emergency services control
centre that was originally designated as a fire control centre. In
addition to this centre there will also be Coastguard centres. At
Dover, Aberdeen, Shetland, Stornoway, Belfast, Holyhead, Milford
Haven, Falmouth and Humber all operating 24/7. The London
coordination centre will continue to be co-located with the Port of
London Authority. We are also improving the leadership of the
volunteer Coastguard Rescue Service by strengthening the numbers of
existing regular Coastguard officers based in these coastal
communities and I'm also pleased to be able to announce that the
Coastguard Rescue Service will be strengthened by an increase of 50%
to the number of full time officers available to the volunteers for
operational attendance, leadership and advice. This will allow
much more flexibility in the management and training of our
volunteers and help to remove the current uneven distribution of
Coastguard Rescue Teams between their management. It will also
give a greater presence of Coastguard officers in coastal
communities and provide increased opportunity for interaction with
other emergency services and coastal leisure and commercial bodies.
These officers will operate in teams with a focal point or
operational hub. It is intended that these will be based in:-
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Existing Centres |
Additional locations |
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Lerwick
Aberdeen
Bridlington
Walton-on-the-Naze
Dover
Falmouth
Swansea
Liverpool
Belfast
Stornoway |
Moray Firth
Northeast England
Southampton/Portsmouth
Dorset
North Devon
Cardigan Bay
Strathclyde
Oban/Fort William |
I know that you like me will be acutely
aware that whilst this announcement is the beginning of a new era for HM
Coastguard it will a time of massive change for colleagues currently based in
Yarmouth, Thames, Solent, Portland, Brixham, Swansea, Liverpool, Forth and Clyde
whose stations will be closing before 31 March 2015.
This structural change is about the way the regular Coastguard service
coordinates search and rescue operations. It is not about the UK's rescue
capability. Although we are reducing staff numbers, our new structure will give
the UK a nationally networked Coastguard service that is resilient, effective
and efficient. We will continue to provide a quality safety service to the
mariner and coastal user and I'd like to thank you for your continued support as
we move forward."
Please email us your views and
thoughts on this closure to our newsroom via emailing:-
news24@southportreporter.com. |
